I guess it really does give you wings...

Want to lead testing? Call Dietrich Mateschitz.

For the third straight day, a Red Bull-backed team topped the charts at Jerez.

Today it was Mark Webber, who set time of 1:19.176 on ’09 Bridgestone slicks in the morning.

Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel, who will line up next to Webber next season, was quickest on the first two days of the four-day session.

“We’ve had a pretty good two days here. The car ran pretty reliably and we’ve clocked up some good mileage,” Webber said. “Today we were mostly getting ready for Budapest, as well as looking at developments for a little later in the season.”

“Yesterday we were focusing more on ‘09, and it was quite a challenging day,” he continued. “Today was better in terms of what we learned, mechanically and aerodynamically. It’s been a hot week for the guys working here and they’ve done a good job.”

David Coulthard takes over from Webber tomorrow.

Nelson Piquet was second fastest in the Renault before taking a trip into the kitty litter towards the end of the session.

“We spent most of the day looking ahead to next year by running with slick tyres, which was very interesting,” he said. “They felt good, gave plenty of grip, and the car was working well. We also did some set-up work, evaluating the changes to try and improve the overall balance. So overall another good day’s work.”

Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest in the Ferrari, as the Scuderia focused on improving its 2008 challenger.

Force India’s Vitantonio Liuzzi was fourth as the team continued testing its seamless-shift gearbox.

“It was a good day of testing with more than 100 laps, so it was quite positive,” Liuzzi told autosport.com. “Finally we put on the track the seamless shift and seems like it is working properly. For sure, we have to tune it better for the final version in Hungary, but we are happy because it was quite reliable. Hopefully there will be no problems for the rest of the test, and we will be ready to run it in Budapest.”

1. Webber, Red Bull, 1:19.176
2. Piquet, Renault, 1:19.334
3. Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:19.434
4. Liuzzi, Force India, 1:19.544
5. De la Rosa, McLaren, 1:19.850
6. Bourdais, Toro Rosso, 1:20.029
7. Nakajima, Williams, 1:20.097
8. Glock, Toyota, 1:20.421
9. Barrichello, Honda, 1:20.614
10. Heidfeld, BMW Sauber, 1:20.896

Mosley wins in court

Max Mosley won his case against the News of the World tabloid, a court awarding him £60,000 in damages for breach of privacy concerning consensual "sexual activities (albeit unconventional)."

The court ruled their was no evidence the session reenacted Nazi behavior, rather the "bondage, beating and domination" that did take place was "typical of S&M behaviour," according to the BBC, thus, the newspaper had not satisfied the court there was a case for public interest.

"It demonstrates that their Nazi lie was completely invented and had no justification," the BBC reports Mosley said after the decision. "It also shows that that they had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and film of adults engaged in activities which are no-one's business but those of the people concerned."

Mosley told the court the story had devastated his wife and was undignified and humiliating for his children.

"Our press is less free today after another judgement based on privacy laws emanating from Europe," News of the World editor Colin Myler said, according to the BBC."(Mosley) had an obligation to honour the standards which its vast membership had every right to expect of him."

The judge, however, disagreed.

"Taking part in depraved and brutal S&M orgies on a regular basis does not, in our opinion, constitute the fit and proper behaviour to be expected of someone in his hugely influential position," he said.

Read the full BBC coverage here.

Raikkonen says he’s not quitting

World champion Kimi Raikkonen says he has no plans to quit Ferrari early, saying he intends to see out his current contract.

Citing waning interest in the face of recent struggles which have seen him drop to third on the drivers championship table, the latest round of silly season rumors have the Finn quitting the Scuderia at the end of the current campaign.

Sky Sports reports Raikkonen told Spanish newspaper El Mundo, however, he has no intention of leaving Ferrari before his current contract runs out after the 2009 season.

After that is anyone’s guess.

“I'm not in a hurry to decide what I am going to do in the future,” Raikkonen reportedly told the Spanish daily. “I have a year left on my contract that I want to fulfil. Later, in 2010, I do not know if I will be in F1. We will see.”

“It is not an easy decision,” he continued. “I have to evaluate many things, and I am not going to give any explanation to anybody. I will make my decision when I am ready. Ferrari are not pushing me on this.”

Slick Vettel quick again

For the second straight day, Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel topped the charts at Jerez.

Vettel, set to make the leap to sister squad Red Bull in 2009, set a time of 1:18.843 in the afternoon as STR tested a 2009-spec, slick-shod car.

“I spent the whole time on the 2009 spec slick tyres and the biggest difference you notice is in the slow corners, where you feel more mechanical grip,” he said. “However, the low downforce configuration in line with next year’s rules means you have a lack of aero which you feel on the high speed sections, but it is balanced out by more grip from the tyres. We tried two types of tyre and it was an interesting experiment, from which we got loads of data to study.”

McLaren’s Pedro de la Rosa was second, and Kimi Rakkonen third in the Ferrari.

Reflecting the shift in priorities in the second half of the season, many teams ran some combination of 2009 aero packages and slick rubber.

One exception was Toyota, which focused on setup for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

“After yesterday’s preparations for 2009, today we went back to this year’s work. Our focus for the day was the Hungarian Grand Prix, looking at set–up this morning because the afternoons here are too windy and too hot for that,” Trulli said.

And Force India took the opportunity to test a seamless-shift gearbox.

The four day test wraps up Friday.

1. Vettel, Toro Rosso, 1:18.843
2. De la Rosa, McLaren, 1:19.061
3. Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:19.446
4. Rosberg, Williams, 1:19.861
5. Webber, Red Bull, 1:20.021
6. Wurz, Honda, 1:20.416
7. Trulli, Toyota, 1:20.534
8. Liuzzi, Force India, 1:20.577
9. Piquet, Renault, 1:20.827
10. Klien, BMW, 1:20.850

Honda gunning for Alonso?

Honda reportedly has offered a “name-your-price” offer for the services of Fernando Alonso.

The Telegraph reports Ross Brawn and Nick Fry made the offer in hopes of paring the double world champion up alongside Jenson Button from 2009.

Many believe Ferrari have secured Alonso’s services for 2010, but the newspaper reports Honda are not looking at a temporary solution, but rather are trying to convince the Spaniard the Japanese team is the better lace to be.

Part of that strategy is the presence of Brawn, a proven winner, combined with the new regulations set to take hold in 2009.

KERS issue hits BMW Sauber

BMW Sauber was forced to call a halt to testing of its Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) when one of its mechanics received a shock today at Jerez.

The mechanic, who was thrown to the ground by the shock from a KERS-equipped car driven by test driver Christian Klien, escaped serious injury, but the team stopped the test when no cause could be found.

This is the second KERS-related incident in the last two weeks. Red Bull was forced to evacuate its factory last week when a battery failure caused a fire scare.

Toyota wants to discuss Glock’s trackside treatment

Toyota has asked for talks with the FIA concerning Timo Glock’s treatment by track marshals following his hard crash at the German Grand Prix.

The Germen, who made hard contact with the pit wall when his rear suspension failed, was unstrapped from his car rather than the normal practice of being removed while in his seat.

Glock was walked away from his car on wobbly legs holding his back.

“We want to talk about how the driver was recovered from the cockpit. However, we do not wish to complain,” Eurosport reports Toyota F1 president John Howett said. “We will look at the video and figure out exactly what happened. The most important thing is that Timo is absolutely okay.”

Glock is expected to return to the cockpit this week at Jerez.

Michelin to supply A1GP

The world cup of motorsport has a new tire supplier -- Michelin.

Grandprix.com reports the French tire maker, late of F1, has signed a three-year deal to begin this season.

Ferrari test drivers Andrea Bertolini, Patrick Friesacher and Marc Gene have been testing the tires on the new Ferrari-powered cars.

Vettel leads first day of Jerez test

Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel continued his good form, leading the first day of a four day test at Jerez.

Vettel set a time of 1:19.844 in the morning to top the charts ahead of McLaren’s Gary Paffett and Ferrari’s Luca Badoer.

Badoer’s time was set in a 2009-spec car on slick tires. Vettel will continue to test tomorrow on slicks.

Nico Hulkenberg, Sebastien Buemi, and Romain Grosjean also joined the F1 regulars today.

The only red flag of the day came courtesy of Hulkenberg, who stopped on the circuit in the afternoon.

Times

1. Vettel, Toro Rosso, 1:19.844
2. Paffett, McLaren, 1:20.179
3. Badoer, Ferrari, 1:20.697
4. Hulkenberg, Williams, 1:20.953
5. Buemi, Red Bull, 1:20.997
6. Grosjean, Renault, 1:21.223
7. Trulli, Toyota, 1:21.459
8. Wurz, Honda, 1:21.596
9. Klien, BMW, no time

Ferrari in crisis?

None other than Luca di Montezemolo weighed in on Ferrari’s performance last weekend at Hockenheim.

The Ferrari chieftain, who blasted the team’s “stupid mistakes” at Silverstone, personally met with Ferrari engineers Monday to analyze Sunday’s race. Montezemolo said he wanted to be present “at a very important time from a technical standpoint,” La Gazzetta dello Sport reports.

Most concerning was the drop in performance from Friday to Sunday. Felipe Massa finished third and Kimi Raikkonen sixth last weekend.

“Let's forget about labels, because we need to figure out why we were so slow in Germany, slower than ever before this season,” the Ferrari boss said, according to the Italian sports daily.

Following the meeting, Montezemolo said the team has recovered from worse before, and he is confident it can do so again.

Ferrari still lead the constructors championship with 105 points.

But it must be worrying, especially when you consider the number of points the Scuderia left on the table in the first half of the season.

McLaren truly looks like it took a big step forward in recent weeks, and the Prancing Horse must respond quickly if it is to maintain its lead in the championship.

“As usual, we know the McLarens were faster on a lap basis, but this is offset by our reliability and our pace in the race,” La Gazzetta dello Sport reports race director Stefano Domenicali said. “Unfortunately, we saw this was not true yesterday, but we are determined to respond.”

Bourdais on the good and bad of Vettel’s promotion

For Toro Rosso’s Sebatatien Bourdais, his teammate’s promotion to Red Bull is a positive and a negative.

“It's mostly a good thing for me because the team will probably not want to change both its drivers at once,” Bourdais told AFP, “If they keep me because they don't want to change their two drivers at the same time, that's not very exciting either.”

Bourdais has struggled since Toro Rosso introduced it’s new car for the Monaco Grand Prix, while Vettel has excelled, consistently picking up points.

While 2009 is still up in the air, the four-time Champ Car title winner remains focused on the season at hand.

“I'm not questioning myself in regards to next year,” Bourdais said.

The Frenchman finished 12th in last weekend’s German Grand Prix.

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