Gushing wind upset Force India’s second day of testing with Adrian Sutil posting the slowest time of the 16 drivers at the Circuit de Jerez here.

Taking over from Vitantonio Liuzzi for the second day of the three-day test, Sutil struggled to find a good balance as high winds swept the track throughout the day.

Realising the futility of his effort, the German driver then concentrated on race simulations, starts and putting more mileage on the new parts tested and, to his credit, completed 86 laps with no major mechanical problems.

Though he managed to cover 373 km on Wednesday, Sutil’s best lap time of 1min 22.244 was the slowest of the lot. “Even though the weather today was clear, the winds were so strong that it was difficult to do any real work on set-up as we had planned,” Sutil said.

“Sometimes the balance was good, sometimes it was bad and you just couldn’t tell very much from the laps. We still managed to do 86 laps though with no mechanical problems, which is useful, particularly after we had a shortened day last time,” said the driver.

Chief race and test engineer Dominic Harlow too did not read much into Sutil’s timing and derived some positives out of the test. “After Tonio worked yesterday on the braking system and gearbox development, there was no real balance to be found today because the wind was simply too strong, so the team concentrated on race simulations and system checks as the remaining laps of testing before the season’s first race that is counting down rapidly,” he said.

Italian Giancarlo Fisichella will be behind the wheel of VJM01 to conclude the test on Thursday.

Red Bull’s Australian driver Mark Webber (1:18.628) posted the fastest time ahead of the Williams duo of Nico Rosberg (1:19.091) and Kazuki Nakajima (1:19.215). Local hero and Renault driver Fernando Alonso (1:19.710) recorded the fourth fastest time, while former team-mate at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton (1:19.857) was sixth behind BMW’s Robert Kubica (1:19.829).

Second day times: Mark Webber (Red Bull) 1:18.628 (72 laps); Nico Rosberg (Williams) 1:19.091 (98 laps); Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) 1:19.215 (91 laps); Fernando Alonso (Renault) 1:19.710 (104 laps); Robert Kubica (BMW-Sauber) 1:19.829 (116 laps); Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) 1:19.857 (68 laps); David Coulthard (Red Bull) 1:19.883 (97 laps); Sebastian Vettel (Toro Rosso) 1:19.889 (114 laps); Nelson Piquet (Renault) 1:20.014 (110 laps); Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Williams) 1:20.152 (84 laps); Nick Heidfeld (BMW-Sauber) 1:20.201 (109 laps); Sibastien Bourdais (Toro Rosso) 1:20.536 (76 laps); Jenson Button (Honda) 1:21.147 (85 laps); Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) 1:21.376 (101 laps); Rubens Barrichello (Honda) 1:21.710 (58 laps); Adrian Sutil (Force India) 1:22.244 (86 laps).