Jerez de la Frontera, 7 February- To the sound of popular Italian song “Ricominciamo,” “Let’s start again,” in English, the F2012 emerged a few metres out of the pit garage at the Jerez circuit. It was five minutes past nine this morning when Felipe Massa left the pits for the usual installation lap. After that, he spent the first part of the day working on data acquisition relating to the handling of the car. At the lunch break, which began shortly after 1pm, the Brazilian had completed 51 laps, the quickest in a time of 1.22.815. Quickest of all up to this point was Kimi Raikkonen, with a best of 1.19.670.

As always, it’s very hard to evaluate the times during testing because of all the usual unknowns, such as the amount of fuel on board and the type of tyres being used. That is even more the case on the very first day, when the work programme can differ a lot from team to team.