Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado finished the first day of the second winter test ahead of the pack after running with the soft compound tyre.
Maldonado’s time of 1:25.011 was 0.156s faster than Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari who held the top spot for most of the day. Although he set the fastest time, it was not a trouble free day for the Venezualan. He stopped twice on track in the morning sessions with sensor issues. Nevertheless a very good day for Lotus.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen enjoyed a good run of 74 laps for the day. Holding the top spot for most of the day is very encouraging for Ferrari at the moment with his and Maldonado’s fastest times are faster than Lewis Hamilton’s pole setting time for the Spanish Grand Prix last year.
Ricciardo finished the day in 3rd for Red Bull with Force India’s Sergio Perez finishing the day in 4th. The Mexican was not scheduled to drive today but was called up when Lewis Hamilton took ill after completing a few laps in the morning. Which meant that the Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein who was driving for Force India today, had to swap the Force India overalls for the Mercedes ones to take Hamilton’s place. Wehrlein managed 8th for Force India and 9th for Mercedes.
Felipe Nasr showed strong pace in the morning session for Sauber completing 79 laps. He ended the day in 5th. Max Verstappen ended the day in 6th with 94 laps on the board, the highest lap count for the day.
Jenson Button’s day came to an early end after and MGU-K failure. The word from McLaren is that they will need to redesign the MGU-K component and that the engine would need to be replaced until the MGU-K was redesigned. There was no guarantee from Honda that the problem may not occur again. Fernando Alonso, who was scheduled to drive on Saturday and Sunday will be in the car tomorrow to prevent Button from having his day affected by the problem.
Susie Wolff ended her day in 10th ahead for Williams ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 11th. Wolff collided with Sauber’s Felipe Nasr on track in the afternoon session. The contact between the two resulted in Nasr ending up in the T5 barriers with Wolff coming to a stop in the gravel. At the time Wolff was on an out-lap while Nasr was supposedly on a timed lap. Both drivers blame each other for the incident.
After Hamilton took ill, news emerged that Nico Rosberg had an inflamed nerve in his neck and will have to rest until the swelling subsides. It looks as though Wehrlein will be driving the Mercedes for a bit longer.
Below are the unofficial times for Day 1 of the second pre-season test
