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Vettel Tops Last Testing Session of the Year, at Jerez

Finally, a driver other than Sebastien Buemi managed to top the timing sheets at Jerez. The Swiss driver, currently testing for Red Bull Racing, had to admit 'defeat' against RBR's racing driver Sebastian Vettel on Wednesday, as the German recorded the best time of 1:16.617 running on new Bridgestone tires.

Vettel focused most of his testing this week on running some of next year's components, while also trying out the new standard slick tires for 2009. He was pleased with the car setup this week and argued that RBR will be a tough nut to crack next season.

“We've had pretty smooth running at this test and have completed a lot of mileage before the end of the year. I think we've done everything we could here, learning about the tires and next year's regulations and hopefully we will start next year with a car strong enough to challenge the big boys,” said Vettel.

The Red Bull Racing duo completed the third – and last – day of testing more than two seconds ahead of BMW drivers Robert Kubica and Christian Klien. As expected, the two ran another series of tests on their KERS unit. However, the German team had to resume testing of their KERS-powered car in the mid-session, due to (another) failure with the system. It was the second time BMW had to face KERS-related failures during the last 2 testing sessions at Jerez.

Fifth overall, as usual, was Williams' Kazuki Nakajima. However, the Japanese driver insisted the testing session went pretty good, as it gave him a chance to further get used to the new slick tires & aerodynamic package.

Here are the complete results of Wednesday's testing session at Jerez, last of the year:

1. Sebastian Vettel       Red Bull Racing    1:16.617
2. Sebastien Buemi      Red Bull Racing    1:16.988
3. Robert Kubica          BMW Sauber         1:19.013
4. Christian Klien          BMW Sauber         1:19.066
5. Kazuki Nakajima       Williams                 1:19.341
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