Day 1
The second and final pre-season test is underway at Barcelona. After Friday, the next time we’ll see F1 cars in action is the Australian Grand Prix. McLaren Honda ended the day well with Alonso completing 93 laps and setting a third fastest time of 1:24.735s. This has to be encouraging for the Woking-based squad; however, the day was not without issue when a telemetry issue caused a brief pause in running.
Mercedes began to show their hand today after using the first test seemingly for reliability and endurance testing only; their best time was a 1:23.022s set by Nico Rosberg. Max Verstappen ran the most laps with a total of 144. During the day Red Bull, Renault, Ferrari, Manor, and Haas all suffered issues that caused breaks in their running.
1. Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m23.022s, 82 laps
2. Bottas, Williams, 1m23.229s, 123 laps
3. Alonso, McLaren, 1m24.735s, 93 laps
4. Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m24.836s, 71 laps
5. Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m25.049s, 69 laps
6. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m25.051s, 90 laps
7. Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m25.176s, 144 laps
8. Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m25.336s, 121 laps
9. Nasr, Sauber, 1m25.493s, 103 laps
10. Magnussen, Renault, 1m25.760s, 119 laps
11. Gutierrez, Haas, 1m26.661s, 23 laps
12. Haryanto, Manor, 1m27.625s, 45 laps
Day 2:
A satisfactory day of testing for Jenson Button who was behind the wheel of the MP4-31 as he drove to a respectable time of 1:25.183s.
Bottas, Hamilton, and Magnussen all broke into the 1:23s range with simulated qualifying laps. It was a terrible day for Haas with turbo issues preventing the team from setting a time.
1. Bottas, Williams, 1m23.261s,
2. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m23.622s,
3. Magnussen, Renault, 1m23.933s,
4. Vettel, Ferrari, 1m24.611s,
5. Button, McLaren, 1m25.183s,
6. Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m25.235s,
7. Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1m25.300s,
8. Perez, Force India, 1m25.593s,
9. Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m26.298s,
10. Wehrlein, Manor, 1m27.064s,
11. Ericsson, Sauber, 1m27.487s,
12. Gutierrez, Haas, No time
Day 3:
Another solid day of testing for McLaren Honda with Alonso behind the wheel of the MP4-31. Despite only setting a mid-pack lap time the team ran a race simulation, tried new parts, and sampled most tire compounds including the new ultra soft for the first time.
The other big news of the day is Ferrari who ran a concept of a halo cockpit protector early in the test. Reactions have tended to be less than favorable. Ferrari also owns fast lap for the day with Kimi Raikkonen banking a 1:22.785s. Haas continued to struggle with the car and driver pair causing three red flags on the day. If anyone was still curious where Mercedes is, it is noteworthy that Rosberg set a 1:24.126 on the medium tire. Based on the times other teams set on the super and ultra soft tires and the expected lap time delta between the compounds we can surmise that, despite whatever progress they hoped for over the winter, Ferrari has its work cut out for it to catch the Silver Arrows.
1. Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m22.785s, 136 laps
2. Massa, Williams, 1m23.193s, 119 laps
3. Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m23.251s, 137 laps
4. Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m23.382s, 159 laps
5. Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m24.126s, 81 laps
6. Nasr, Sauber, 1m24.768s, 116 laps
7. Alonso, McLaren, 1m24.870s, 118 laps
8. Wehrlein, Manor, 1m24.913s, 48 laps
9. Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m25.141s, 121 laps
10. Palmer, Renault, 1m26.224s, 98 laps
11. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m26.488s, 63 laps
12. Grosjean, Haas, 1m27.196s, 78 laps
Day 4:
That’s a wrap on preseason testing for 2016! McLaren Honda heads to Melbourne having completed a good battery of tests and mileage on the MP4-31. Today Jenson Button drove the car to 1:24.714s lap time over the course of 121 laps. The team is said not to have run all of the updated parts it has and those parts will debut in Australia.
Another ominous sign from Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton registering a 1:24.1s lap on the medium tire to match Rosberg’s 1:24.1s yesterday. Despite Ferrari dipping into the 1:22s range again, today with Vettel behind the wheel, they will need to have something left in the bank to match Mercedes when they switch to the faster tire compounds. Haas has to be walking away from testing somewhat discouraged after many issues hampered their running.
1. Vettel, Ferrari, 1m22.852s, 142 laps
2. Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1m23.134s, 133 laps
3. Massa, Williams, 1m23.644s, 129 laps
4. Perez, Force India, 1m23.721s, 60 laps
5. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m24.133s, 69 laps
6. Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m24.427s, 123 laps
7. Button, McLaren, 1m24.714s, 121 laps
8. Palmer, Renault, 1m24.859s,90 laps
9. Ericsson, Sauber, 1m25.031s, 132 laps
10. Grosjean, Haas, 1m25.255s, 66 laps
11. Gutierrez, Haas, 1m25.422s, 25 laps
12. Haryanto, Manor, 1m25.899s, 58 laps
13. Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m26.140s, 70 laps
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