The third and final pre-season test of the 2014 season continued on Friday, with Sergio Perez setting the pace once again.
It was a heavily disrupted session with even the Mercedes-powered runners suffering reliability issues. It was a more promising day for Red Bull and Marussia, but McLaren and Lotus lost crucial track time.
Conditions at the Bahrain International Circuit were cooler and more overcast on day two. Fortunes continued to be mixed as teams attempted to work through their scheduled programmes.
Caterham, Lotus and Mercedes were all forced to cut short their on-track running due to mechanical issues, and McLaren lost a large amount of time with its MP4-29 despite not trialling any upgrades.
Sergio Perez set the pace once again for Force India. It was his final day in the VJM07 before the first round of the year in Australia, and he made the most of it. The car was stable and reliable on the second day of the final test, managing 108 laps.
His quickest time, a 1m35.570, was two tenths slower than his best lap set on Thursday. Fernando Alonso, like Perez, had a trouble-free day and completed the most laps of anyone, with 122. His quickest lap was good enough for second place on the timesheets, just 0.064 seconds down on the pace setter.
Red Bull Racing enjoyed its best day of winter testing yet. It was far from smooth with a late start due to overnight repairs, but Daniel Ricciardo managed to complete a 20-lap run in the afternoon. He ended the day third fastest, two tenths off the quickest time, after a more encouraging session.
The Aussie said: "It went a lot better today. This morning it was important to have the race crew here to do the pit stops, as they haven’t had the chance to get to grips with the car yet, so we didn’t do that many laps in the morning. However, in the afternoon we did some good stuff.
"We had a go on the soft tyre, which was nice, to see how the car responds with a bit more grip. We also did one long run at the end, which was very important, just to see how the car is behaving with the tyres. A big improvement everywhere over yesterday and a much more optimistic outlook now I think. We still have a lot to learn and understand, but we’re making progress and the past two days have been a big step in the right direction."
It was another productive session for the Williams outfit. Felipe Massa set the fourth best time and - more importantly - managed 103 laps in the FW36. In contrast, McLaren had a difficult day with Jenson Button completed just 52 laps.
He caused the second of four red flags late in the morning session. The MP4-29 was repaired in time for some running at the end of the afternoon, but the Brit lost plenty of track time. The Marussia F1 Team gained 75 laps worth of data and information from its 2014 machine on Friday after a strong session for the Banbury-based outfit.
Jules Bianchi was at the wheel of the Ferrari-powered MR03 and set the sixth fastest time. The Frenchman said: "I am really happy with what we have achieved today. The car feels good and we have had the reliability to really build our mileage. We would have liked to have some more laps for sure, but we were able to enjoy some good runs and get a really good feeling for the car in high and low fuel conditions.
"I am looking forward to my second day of running tomorrow and I hope we can continue the good work of the last two days. I would like to thank the Team and our partners Scuderia Ferrari for all the hard work, which is now starting to show on the track."
Lewis Hamilton's day was cut short due to a gearbox issue with his Mercedes W05, but he still managed 89 laps of the 3.63-mile circuit. Jean-Eric Vergne had a rather quiet day driving the Toro Rosso STR9. He completed 61 laps and set the eighth quickest time of the day.
Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed a strong and busy session in the Sauber C33. He managed 106 laps for the Swiss outfit. In contrast, Pastor Maldonado's final day in the Lotus E22 was a disastrous one. He caused the third red flag after stopping out on track and failed to reappear thanks to damage from a "localised fire" after just 31 laps.
"It was a tough day for us with the fire," said Maldonado. "We need to keep working and for sure it’s not an ideal situation for the team, or for me but we need to keep focus, work together and I hope for the future we can be better. Today was my last day of pre-season testing so it will be very interesting when we get to Australia."
Caterham also suffered fire damage after its CT05 ground to a halt with 50 minutes of the session remaining. Marcus Ericsson only managed 55 laps and propped up the timesheets.
"My first day of the final test in the car and it obviously didn’t end as we wanted it to but we did achieve quite a lot of the plan we’d set for the day," he explained. "We’d had a stop/start morning but the afternoon session was going well until a technical problem just after I exited the pits after the first stint of a race simulation started a fire which forced me to stop the car on track.
"The fire itself was out pretty quickly and the boys now have a lot of work ahead of them to find out what happened and get it all fixed for tomorrow. I’d like to have had some more laps today, but we still have another day left and with every lap I’m learning, so I’m still as positive as I was when we arrived here and just want to get back in the car and back to work."
It was another busy day of on-track action in Bahrain as preparations for the Australian Grand Prix continued. The final two days of testing look set to be jam-packed as the new season edges closer.
Day 2 Times:
1. Sergio Perez (Force India), 1m35.570 – 108 laps
2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 1m35.634 – 122 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing), 1m35.743 – 66 laps
4. Felipe Massa (Williams), 1m36.507 – 103 laps
5. Jenson Button (McLaren), 1m36.901 – 52 laps
6. Jules Bianchi (Marussia), 1m38.092 – 75 laps
7. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 1m39.041 – 89 laps
8. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), 1m39.636 – 61 laps
9. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), 1m39.976 – 106 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), 1m41.613 – 31 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson (Caterham), 1m42.516 – 55 laps
 |
| © Sahara Force India F1 Team |
Conditions at the Bahrain International Circuit were cooler and more overcast on day two. Fortunes continued to be mixed as teams attempted to work through their scheduled programmes.
Caterham, Lotus and Mercedes were all forced to cut short their on-track running due to mechanical issues, and McLaren lost a large amount of time with its MP4-29 despite not trialling any upgrades.
 |
| © Ferrari |
Sergio Perez set the pace once again for Force India. It was his final day in the VJM07 before the first round of the year in Australia, and he made the most of it. The car was stable and reliable on the second day of the final test, managing 108 laps.
His quickest time, a 1m35.570, was two tenths slower than his best lap set on Thursday. Fernando Alonso, like Perez, had a trouble-free day and completed the most laps of anyone, with 122. His quickest lap was good enough for second place on the timesheets, just 0.064 seconds down on the pace setter.
Red Bull Racing enjoyed its best day of winter testing yet. It was far from smooth with a late start due to overnight repairs, but Daniel Ricciardo managed to complete a 20-lap run in the afternoon. He ended the day third fastest, two tenths off the quickest time, after a more encouraging session.
The Aussie said: "It went a lot better today. This morning it was important to have the race crew here to do the pit stops, as they haven’t had the chance to get to grips with the car yet, so we didn’t do that many laps in the morning. However, in the afternoon we did some good stuff.
"We had a go on the soft tyre, which was nice, to see how the car responds with a bit more grip. We also did one long run at the end, which was very important, just to see how the car is behaving with the tyres. A big improvement everywhere over yesterday and a much more optimistic outlook now I think. We still have a lot to learn and understand, but we’re making progress and the past two days have been a big step in the right direction."
 |
| © Red Bull/Getty Images |
It was another productive session for the Williams outfit. Felipe Massa set the fourth best time and - more importantly - managed 103 laps in the FW36. In contrast, McLaren had a difficult day with Jenson Button completed just 52 laps.
He caused the second of four red flags late in the morning session. The MP4-29 was repaired in time for some running at the end of the afternoon, but the Brit lost plenty of track time. The Marussia F1 Team gained 75 laps worth of data and information from its 2014 machine on Friday after a strong session for the Banbury-based outfit.
Jules Bianchi was at the wheel of the Ferrari-powered MR03 and set the sixth fastest time. The Frenchman said: "I am really happy with what we have achieved today. The car feels good and we have had the reliability to really build our mileage. We would have liked to have some more laps for sure, but we were able to enjoy some good runs and get a really good feeling for the car in high and low fuel conditions.
"I am looking forward to my second day of running tomorrow and I hope we can continue the good work of the last two days. I would like to thank the Team and our partners Scuderia Ferrari for all the hard work, which is now starting to show on the track."
Lewis Hamilton's day was cut short due to a gearbox issue with his Mercedes W05, but he still managed 89 laps of the 3.63-mile circuit. Jean-Eric Vergne had a rather quiet day driving the Toro Rosso STR9. He completed 61 laps and set the eighth quickest time of the day.
Esteban Gutierrez enjoyed a strong and busy session in the Sauber C33. He managed 106 laps for the Swiss outfit. In contrast, Pastor Maldonado's final day in the Lotus E22 was a disastrous one. He caused the third red flag after stopping out on track and failed to reappear thanks to damage from a "localised fire" after just 31 laps.
 |
| © Caterham F1 Team |
Caterham also suffered fire damage after its CT05 ground to a halt with 50 minutes of the session remaining. Marcus Ericsson only managed 55 laps and propped up the timesheets.
"My first day of the final test in the car and it obviously didn’t end as we wanted it to but we did achieve quite a lot of the plan we’d set for the day," he explained. "We’d had a stop/start morning but the afternoon session was going well until a technical problem just after I exited the pits after the first stint of a race simulation started a fire which forced me to stop the car on track.
"The fire itself was out pretty quickly and the boys now have a lot of work ahead of them to find out what happened and get it all fixed for tomorrow. I’d like to have had some more laps today, but we still have another day left and with every lap I’m learning, so I’m still as positive as I was when we arrived here and just want to get back in the car and back to work."
It was another busy day of on-track action in Bahrain as preparations for the Australian Grand Prix continued. The final two days of testing look set to be jam-packed as the new season edges closer.
Day 2 Times:
1. Sergio Perez (Force India), 1m35.570 – 108 laps
2. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari), 1m35.634 – 122 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing), 1m35.743 – 66 laps
4. Felipe Massa (Williams), 1m36.507 – 103 laps
5. Jenson Button (McLaren), 1m36.901 – 52 laps
6. Jules Bianchi (Marussia), 1m38.092 – 75 laps
7. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), 1m39.041 – 89 laps
8. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso), 1m39.636 – 61 laps
9. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber), 1m39.976 – 106 laps
10. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus), 1m41.613 – 31 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson (Caterham), 1m42.516 – 55 laps
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