Nico Rosberg stamped Mercedes’ authority on day one of the second test in Barcelona by going quickest on the day.

Rosberg’s fastest time of 1:23.022 just told half the story. Lewis Hamilton took over in the afternoon session and went on to complete a very impressive race simulation. Between the Mercedes drivers they managed to rack up 169 laps.

“It was a great afternoon of running with great mileage,” said Hamilton.

“We did a race simulation and after that I feel I’m ready for race one.

“The car is feeling great and was consistent all day.”

Valtteri Bottas ended his day second fastest with a time of 1:23.229 with 123 laps under his belt.

Finishing third fastest was McLaren’s Fernando Alonso with a time of 1:24.735 ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in 4th with a best time of 1:24.836. Both Raikkonen and Alonso brought out the red flags today with Alonso stopping at the end of the pit lane at the end of the morning session and Raikkonen in the mid afternoon with a gearbox problem.

Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull finished 5th fastest with Hamilton in the Mercedes 6ht.

In the new liveried Toro Rosso, Max Verstappen ened his day 7th fastest with the highest lap count of the day at 144. Another solid day of running for Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India seen him finish 8th fastest. Tom McCullough, Chief Race Engineer at Force India called it “another routine day.”

The Sauber C35 made its debut today at the hand of Felipe Nasr who completed 103 laps to place 9th fastest ahead of Kevin Magnussen in the Renault R.S.16 in 10th. Magnussen clocked up 119 laps until he came to a stop at Turn 3 just 10mins before the end of the day.

Haas F1 had one of their worst testing days so far with Esteban Gutierrez confined to the garage for most of the day after a problem with the fuel system.

It was not much different for Rio Haryanto in the Manor. The car suffered from an oil leak which kept in the pits for most of the morning session.