The Circuito de Jerez opened at around 8 A.M. (GMT) for by three of four in the Jerez pre-season testing. Ferrari clenched the top spots on the time sheet for today, making this their third consecutive day. It was a gloomy, but dry testing day. Today we saw Felipe Nasr in the Sauber, Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari, Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, Felipe Massa in the Williams, Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus, Carlos Sainz Jr. in the Toro Rosso, Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull and Fernando Alonso in the McLaren. Once again Force India is missing from the test. They skipped the Jerez test because they are still working on the car and there are now rumors that the team will miss the first race in Australia.
After narrowly coming in second to the Ferrari car in the first two days of the Jerez test, team Sauber finally took the top spot of the day. This success was due to the team’s tyre strategy. The rookie, Felipe Nasr, set a quick time of 1:21.545 after a long 108 laps of testing. With one final day remaining in the test, the team has recorded 270 laps over the course of three days. Nasr brought out the first red flag of the day in the opening hours after he spun his car into the gravel. Luckily, the car was undamaged and the team was able to get the car back out onto the track shortly after. Marcus Ericsson will be back in the car tomorrow for the final day of the test.
Although they lost the lead of the day to Sauber, team Ferrari was only 0.2 seconds of the pace. Kimi Raikkonen took the car out for some aerodynamic testing early in the day, but later focused on setting fast times. The team swapped first place back and forth with Sauber. The car set a time of 1:21.750 with 92 laps of testing for the day, giving them a three-day total of 240 laps. Raikkonen will be back in the car tomorrow as well.
Nico Rosberg took hold of the Mercedes car again today, piloting the car to third on the time sheets. The team focused on long stints again and set the most laps of the day, with 151 laps. This gives the team an amazing total of 399 laps, with still one day remaining. They set a time of 1:21.982, enough to get third on the time sheet. Merecedes’ day went smoothly until the start of the afternoon, when Rosberg’s engine shutdown in the middle of the lap. This brought out the second red flag of the day. Lewis Hamilton, the defending World Champion, will be taking part in the final day of testing.
Felipe Massa started the first of his two days of testing for Williams. The team spent their day working on their Australian Grand Prix setup. There were no issues with the car today and testing went relatively smooth. Massa set a time of 1:22.276, to claim position number four on the time charts. Massa ran 71 laps for the day, giving the team a total of 205, as Massa prepares to get back in the car tomorrow.
It wasn’t until approximately 10:30 A.M. that we saw the Lotus first head out to the track. The team had some telemetry issues that kept Pastor Maldonado stuck in the garage. The team used most of the morning to run aerodynamic tests using the air flow paint. With one minute to go in the testing day, Maldonado brought out the third, and final, red flag of the day when he rolled to a stop. The team ran 96 laps and set a day’s time of 1:22.713, enough to get fifth of the day. Romain Grosjean will have the final drive of the Jerez test, adding to the team’s 137 logged laps.
The new Toro Rosso car had a rather successful day with Carlos Sainz Jr. piloting it to a sixth position in the third day of the test. There were no issues today for the team. A time of 1:23.187 was what earned Toro Rosso sixth position, one position higher than Red Bull. The team ran the car for an impressive 136 laps, giving them a total of 255 laps in three days. Seventeen-year-old, Max Verstappen, will be participating in the final Jerez test.
Red Bull had another crumby day today, following their front wing issues yesterday. A replacement wing was flown in overnight and fitted to the car so it was ready for the morning. Daniel Ricciardo took the car out for a five laps in the start of the day, but the car vanished into the garage for most of the day. It was discovered later that the car experienced some sort of engine malfunctions, forcing the team to fit a completely new Renault engine into the car. After hours of work, the car was sent back out onto the track with about two and a half hours left in the day. Despite the limited time on the track, the team was able to run 48 laps in total, giving them a total of 101 laps. Daniil Kvyat will be returning tomorrow to replace Ricciardo, who set a time of 1:23.901 for the day.
The story of the Jerez test continues for McLaren, as they manage to log only 32 laps. At the end of the day on Monday, the engineers felt that they had pin-pointed the source of their issues. Fernando Alonso was able to run some slow laps in the morning. It seemed as though things were improving for the team. However, when the team returned from a lunch break, they announced that they would not be continuing because of some water pressure issues. They spent the remainder of the test removing and inspecting the power unit to determine the cause of the issues. Hopefully the team will be able to run some laps tomorrow, when Jenson Button gets back in the car.
