Jerez Test,
Day 2
Wednesday, 29 January 2014
Times from today:
1 J.Button McLaren 1.24.165 43 Laps
2 K.Raikkonen Ferrari 1.24.812 47 Laps
3 V.Bottas Williams 1.25.344 35 Laps
4 N.Rosberg Mercedes 1.25.588 97 Laps
5 S.Perez Force India 1.28.376 37 Laps
6 E.Gutierrez Sauber 1.33.270 53 Laps
7 M.Ericsson Caterham 1.37.975 11 Laps
8 S.Vettel Red Bull 1.38.320 8 Laps
The day started with Pirelli soaking the already damp track so as to test their new wet tyre which features a completely new tread pattern.
After a no running at all yesterday Mclaren unleashed the MP4-29 today and topped the timesheets at the Jerez test in which Mercedes seem to have stolen a march on their rival engine manufacturers Ferrari and Renault
All four Mercedes teams managed 212 laps all together whilst there were only two Ferrari powered cars in action who managed 100 laps between them.
But it was the Renault powered teams, including four time World Champions Red Bull, who suffered the worst with only two (out of potential 4) teams out on track and those two only managing 19 laps between them – (Caterham - 11) & (Red Bull - 8).
Toro Rosso did not run at all “because of electrical problems that could not be repaired in time” Lotus of course are not even present at this test.
Button amassed 43 laps and finished the day topping the time-sheets with a time of 1:24.165, three seconds up on the best time set on day one but six seconds away of the best time of 1:18.218 by Lotus's Grosjean on the same day last year.
Ferrari had a solid day with Raikkonen who managed 47 laps posting the second best time of the day.
Valterri Bottas and Williams will have been pleased to add 35 laps to their poor tally of 7 laps from yesterday and a solid third best time.
The busiest team / driver today was Rosberg who managed 97 laps setting the fourth fastest lap. More importantly the team managed a few longer runs which were trouble free and were the first time to manage to run more than a handful of laps.
Force India were 5th fastest with Perez but he did have a tough day as the car stopped out on track with smoke pouring out of the back mid-afternoon!
Esteban Gutierrez ended the day sixth fastest with 53 laps but also did not have a trouble free day as it was the Sauber that bought out the first red flag of the day when he spun into gravel trap.
Marcus Ericsson could managed 11 which was a massive improvement on the one single lap that he managed yesterday!
Vettel was the slowest of the day with the the Red Bull only doing 8 laps which means that the world champion team have managed a measly 11 lap in total over the two days of the test. I'm sure this is not the way Adrian Newey wanted to get started whilst watching the Mercedes powered cars getting good a great head start.
Renault have described their problems as an ‘Energy [storage]‘ problem. They are flying out new parts hoping to be able to fix this over night and allow their teams to get some running in tomorrow.
Marussia have had their car delivered to the track this afternoon and hope to get some track time tomorrow.
Whilst it is foolish to read anything into laptimes at this early stage it is clear that the Mercedes powered cars have a reliability boost and are able to run their cars which is certainly an advantage at this stage! They cars are inevitably slower than this time last year and will improve as the testing continues.
