Day two of four at the Circuito de Jerez for pre-season testing stared at about 8 A.M. (GMT). For the second consecutive day, the two Ferrari engines claimed the top of the time sheet. The Ferrari team led the way, followed by team Sauber. Teams had chance to test their cars in the damp track conditions after a little rain hit the area in the afternoon. Today we saw Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari, Felipe Nasr in the Sauber, Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes, Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso, Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus, Jenson Button in the McLaren and Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull. As promised, Force India was a no-show, as they opted out of the test in Jerez.
Sebastian Vettel was behind the wheel of the Ferrari for the second day in a row and again posted the fastest time. He a chance to test the new Ferrari in the same dry conditions as yesterday’s test, but also got to test out the car in a new pair of intermediate tyres for the second half of the day. The team ran an impressive 88 laps, adding to their test total of 148 completed laps. Their fastest time of the day was a 1:20.984, which they set in the dry conditions, that was a little over 1.5 seconds faster than yesterday’s fastest. Kimi Raikkonen will be set to take the wheel for day three of the test in Jerez.
With their new rookie, Felipe Nasr, behind the wheel, Sauber had another successful day of testing. The team set the second fastest time of the day with a time of 1:21.867, which was only a little less than 0.9 seconds off of the Ferrari’s pace. Today was Nasr’s first day driving a Formula One car, giving him a chance to experience both the dry and wet conditions. He completed a successful 89 laps, giving the team a halfway total of 162 laps. The first half of the day was dedicated to running system checks, setup and scans. During the afternoon portion of the test, the team spent their time evaluating the different tyre compounds and adjusting power unit settings. Nasr will be back in the car tomorrow.
Williams had a better day today, running Valtteri Bottas in the car for the second day. The team claimed third position of the day with a time of 1:22.319 after 61 laps of testing. The team has now run 134 laps so far in the test. For the dry part of the day, the team collected various aerodynamic data, but switched their focus to running longer stints once the rain arrived in the afternoon. Despite some mechanical issues in the opening hours of the test yesterday, the team was able to complete the entire day without any issues today. Felipe Massa will be testing the car for tomorrow’s test session.
The 2014 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, finally got back to work today, taking the wheel of the Mercedes. The team decided to focus on long stints to ensure that they car will be as reliable as possible. Hamilton set a time of 1:22.490 to take fourth on the time charts. After 91 laps of testing, Mercedes’ test day came to a halt when the car suffered a part failure. Because of a combination of wet track conditions and a shortened test time, the team didn’t complete as many laps as yesterday, but still has a whopping 248 laps under their belt, as we approach the half way point in the Jerez test. Nico Rosberg will be back in the car tomorrow.
The young rookie, Max Verstappen, spent his first time in a Formula One car today. He gave the Toro Rosso team a best lap time of 1:24.167, which was over 1.6 seconds behind the time set by Mercedes. Although this wasn’t the best time in the world, it was still good enough to get the team a fifth in the test day. The day was trouble-free, unlike yesterday’s test. Midway through the day, the team took some time to make some adjustments to the car, causing them to loose valuable track time. Despite this, the team was able to log 73 laps, which was almost double what they were able to complete yesterday. The team now has a total of 119 test laps here in Jerez. Verstappen will not be in the car tomorrow; instead Carlos Sainz Jr. will get to go for a second day of testing.
After missing the first day of testing, the Lotus car finally arrived at the track. Pastor Maldonado was piloting the car for the 41 laps of testing. The team’s main focus of the Jerez test is to adjust the car for it’s new Mercedes power unit. The team posted a time of 1:25.802 to get sixth on the time charts, but the day was not entirely perfect for the team. Maldonado brought out the only red flag of the race after being forced to stop the car because of a drivetrain failure. Maldonado will be back in the car tomorrow, meaning that Romain Grosjean will only have one day of testing on Wednesday.
The new McLaren car had another horrific day today. The team has been focusing on integrating the new Honda power unit into the car, which has proven to be way more difficult than the team had originally anticipated. The team only logged six laps, with a best time of 1:54.655 which was over 30 seconds off of Vettel’s pace. The team spent most of the day in the garage trying to get the car fired up, with little success. The team has now logged only 12 laps in the Jerez test. The team will surely be hoping that Fernando Alonso will have more success for tomorrow’s day of testing.
Red Bull had an extremely unsuccessful day with Daniil Kvyat behind the wheel. In their first laps of the day, Kvyat went off the track, damaging the car’s only front wing. The team spent the rest of the testing day running the car without the front wing. The team completed 18 laps for the day, but they weren’t able to set any times for the day. The team not having a replacement wing is a result of the team rushing to get the car ready for Jerez test. A replacement wing is in transit and the car should be fully ready for Daniel Ricciardo tomorrow.
