Schumacher turns back the clock to top Jerez F1 test

by Jack Lamure on Feb 11th, 2011

Having consulted our calendars we're pretty sure today is February 11th 2011, but it could just as easily have been the same date in 2001.

Because like those days a decade ago when Michael Schumacher dominated Formula One the German was top of the testing timesheets in Jerez again today, finally showing a glimpse of his past abilities after a disastrous 2010 season.

There had been whispers that the new Mercedes MGP-W02 wasn't up to pace, but today's showing will give the Anglo-German outfit hope that 2011 can be a much better year for Michael and Nico.

"It clearly was a productive day, and obviously I am happy about that," Schumacher said in a post-test statement.

"We were focusing on long runs and being able to produce such a lot of mileage is positive in terms of reliability. It also gives us good data for the test days to come and for the developments we are working on. It clearly was a productive day, and obviously I am happy about that. We were focusing on long runs and being able to produce such a lot of mileage is positive in terms of reliability.

"It also gives us good data for the test days to come and for the developments we are working on.

Day one time-topper Felipe Massa was second fastest, ahead of Jenson Button. The Brit was making his debut in the team's new MP4-26 and quickly edged towards the top of the timesheets. Jaime Alguersuari beat senior Red Bull driver Mark Webber to fourth, with Adrian Sutil, Sergio Perez, Timo Glock, Vitaly Petrov, Pastor Maldonado and Jarno Trulli completing the end-of-day order.