MERCEDES FICHA A PEDRO MARTINEZ DE LA ROSA COMO PROBADOR Opciones

[Francesc]

¡Atención! La notícia dice que Pedro ha sido invitado por McLaren para probar en Jerez, lo cual no significa necesariamente que vaya a fichar como probador. Sin embargo, no deja de ser un buen augurio.

P.D. Me parece lamentable que Pedro Fermín Flores no sepa que el nuevo monoplaza de McLaren es el MP4/18A, no el MP-5.

[Francesc]

En Autosport:

Jerez day 2: Da Matta still on top
Pedro De La Rosa finds testing for McLaren can be painful

Cristiano da Matta continued to set the pace in testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain today (Thursday), topping the timesheets in his Toyota TF103 and once again demonstrating the pace of the Japense marque's new contender.

The Brazilian completed 74 laps and set a best time of 1m18.994s, over half a second quicker than the next fastest driver, McLaren tester Alex Wurz.

Marc Gene was third quickest, after spending a day completing a race simulation run for Williams, while Takuma Sato posted the slowest time of the test, and also endured a spin caused by a hydraulic problem.

Pedro de la Rosa set the fourth fastest time in his second day of testing for McLaren, and was only 0.280s slower than Wurz. This was despite the Spaniard being in considerable pain after problems with his seat yesterday.

"I had such a bad seat yesterday that it has really done damage to my back," de la Rosa told autosport.com. "I could hardly sleep last night. The team made a new seat for me today based on Alex Wurz's seat and that is much more comfortable, but the damage has been done."

Even with his back trouble, de la Rosa was highly impressed with the McLaren outfit. He said: "I've never, ever experienced this amount of grip in my life before! It's a very, very competitive car. It's a very good team, and it's so good to work with an organisation like that. At the moment it's a one-off thing and I don't know what's going to happen."

McLaren were happy with the work of the Spaniard. The outfit's test team development engineer Mark Williams told autosport.com: "He's done exactly what I expected of him. No surprise, no disappointment. Any top drivers should be able to carry out the task. He's a very nice guy and good to work with."

Jerez day 2 (unofficial)
Pos Driver Chassis-engine Tyres Time Laps
1 Cristiano da Matta Toyota M 1m18.994s 74
2 Alex Wurz McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.553s 57*
3 Marc Gene Williams-BMW M 1m19.806s 69
4 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes M 1m19.833s 56*
5 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda B 1m21.141s 58

B = Bridgestone
M = Michelin
* denotes 2002 car


Felipe Massa continued his test programme for Ferrari at Fiorano in Italy today. The Brazilian completed 122 laps while working on tyre testing, setting a fastest lap of 57.496s.

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Es decir, que Pedro ha marcado sus cronos con considerables molestias en la espalda por culpa del asiento.

En McLaren están muy satisfechos con él, pero no dice nada del fichaje por lo que resta de temporada.

Si finalmente se produce, creo que es la mejor notícia que podríamos tener. ¡Pedro formando parte del mejor equipo del mundo!¡Grande!