motor sports

Former seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher set the fastest time on the second day of pre-season testing at the Circuito de Jerez on Wednesday as Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber impressed with the second fastest time.

Schumacher's time of 1min.18.561sec was set in the 2011-spec Mercedes W02 as the team is yet to launch its new car, opting to focus on collecting data on the 2012-spec Pirelli tyres.

Webber led all the other drivers who were driving in their 2012-spec race cars, with the exception of Pedro de la Rosa's HRT F111, with a time of 1m19.184s. The only other driver to set a time below the 1m20s barrier was Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo who clocked a 1m19.587s lap in the morning session of the day.

Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen completed the most number of laps with 139 to clock up a staggering 615.492 kilometers in a single day. Michael Schumacher was next up with 132 laps completed while yesterday's pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen notched up 117 laps and set the fifth fastest time of the day with a 1m20.239s lap.

The teams will continue to test at the circuit located in eastern Spain on Thursday and Friday before taking a ten day break and then resuming testing from 21 February at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona. Mercedes and HRT are expected to have their 2012-spec cars ready for that test as well as the third and final pre-season test at the Circuit de Catalunya from 1 to 4 March.

Pos  Driver               Team           Time               Laps
 1.  Michael Schumacher   Mercedes       1m18.561s           132
 2.  Mark Webber          Red Bull       1m19.184s  + 0.623   97
 3.  Daniel Ricciardo     Toro Rosso     1m19.587s  + 1.026  100
 4.  Jules Bianchi        Force India    1m20.221s  + 1.660   46
 5.  Kimi Raikkonen       Lotus          1m20.239s  + 1.678  117
 6.  Paul di Resta        Force India    1m20.272s  + 1.711   69
 7.  Felipe Massa         Ferrari        1m20.454s  + 1.893   95
 8.  Jenson Button        McLaren        1m20.688s  + 2.127   85
 9.  Sergio Perez         Sauber         1m20.711s  + 2.150   68
10.  Pastor Maldonado     Williams       1m21.197s  + 2.636   97
11.  Heikki Kovalainen    Caterham       1m21.518s  + 2.957  139
12.  Pedro de la Rosa     HRT            1m22.128s  + 3.567   64