Testing continues at two tracks

Testing continued on January 25th with McLaren and Ferrari once again in action at Valencia and Vallelunga respectively. McLaren worked on development of the MP4-22 with Fernando Alonso and teammate Lewis Hamilton on duty. Alonso clocked the better time of the two, 1:11.698, and completed 76 laps.

Lewis Hamilton.

Photo by xpb.cc.

It was not such a successful day for rookie Hamilton, who crashed heavily enough that the car was too badly damaged for him to get back on track. Hamilton himself was unharmed and had managed 33 laps prior to the accident, nine tenths off Alonso.

"Lewis is uninjured," a McLaren spokesperson stated. "However the MP4-22 he was driving is badly damaged and will not be repairable in Valencia for Lewis to continue his test programme tomorrow. The cause of the accident is being investigated."

Ferrari continued to struggle with changeable weather at Vallelunga, where afternoon rain compromised the planned programme. However, Felipe Massa managed to rack up 86 laps in the F2007 with a best time of 1:13.026. Teammate Kimi Raikkonen was just over half a second off in the 248 F1 and completed 43 laps.