Barcelona Testing Day One: Massa heads first day of final pre-season test

Jack Hunsley · Feb 26, 2015

Felipe Massa was the quickest of the F1 testers as the final Pre-Season test before Melbourne kicked off in at the Circuit de Catalunya.

On a day interrupted with brief showers around half way through proceeds, Massa managed post a 1:23.500, the quickest time so far recorded both Barcelona tests, on a three lap run on the Soft compound tyre.

Just behind the Brazilian was Markus Ericsson in the Sauber who posted a 1:24.276 on the Super Softs, all whilst the most mileage on the opening day, managing an impressive 122 laps which will certainly give his team something to smile about.

Behind Ericsson was Hamilton who endured a somewhat troublesome day after an MGU-K failure stopped the Britain from appearing after the lunch break. Meanwhile Kyvat, who was responsible for the first of two red flags after his Red Bull crawled to a halt in the pit lane early on in the day, came home 4th with 75 laps under his belt.

Grosjean in 5th also recorded 75 laps in his Lotus, but had to weather long spells in the pit lane in order to do so. Kimi Raikkonen in 6th also spent a good while in the Ferrari garage, but the Finn still managed some meaningful running, recording 80 laps.

Towards the bottom of the timesheets was where the real problems showed however as Carlos Sainz Jr., driving a heavily modified STR10, brought out the second red flag after stopping out on circuit. But once again it was McLaren who suffered the worst of the lot as an hydraulic issue restricted Jenson Button to just 7 laps as the team were forced to change his Mclaren’s Honda power unit.

Arguably however, they still faired better than Force India who opted to postpone their involvement until tomorrow when they hope to run their new VJM08 for the first time with Nico Hulkenberg behind the wheel.

Pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya continues tomorrow at 9am local time.

Second Barcelona Test Day One Results

1. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1:23.500 103 Laps
2. Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1:24.276 122 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:24.861 48 laps
4. Danil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1:25.947 75 laps
5. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1:26.177 75 laps
6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1:26.327 80 laps
7. Carlos Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso-Renault 1:26.962 86 laps
8. Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1:31.479 7 laps

the_sigman · Feb 26, 2015

Mclaren, that's a joke

Rob · Feb 26, 2015

Would be nice to know car settings, tires, upgrades not yet approved by team, etc. But I guess they keep that stuff to themselves except for tires.

Darth · Feb 27, 2015

Robert Waddell said:
Would be nice to know car settings, tires, upgrades not yet approved by team, etc. But I guess they keep that stuff to themselves except for tires.

True, but it is quite clear that this year's cars are a whole lot faster than last year's.
Hamilton got the pole in Spain last year posting the time of 1:25.232, and now that's
nothing.

Rob · Feb 27, 2015

Darth said:
True, but it is quite clear that this year's cars are a whole lot faster than last year's.
Hamilton got the pole in Spain last year posting the time of 1:25.232, and now that's
nothing.

Good point. And good to see. If F1 rights the sound and the looks, they will be again poised to dominate instead of decline. Every series is getting faster, as best I can tell. I hope Haas comes in next year and shakes things up like Red Bull did. He already has proven pretty savvy by (IMO) making a deal with Ferrari to forgive certain Marussia debts in bankruptcy court in exchange for a steal on the fabrication facilities. He owns the best wind tunnel in the world and has the money to make a splash. Racing smarts vs. Honda's corporate push.

Philip Heck · Feb 27, 2015

Darth said:
True, but it is quite clear that this year's cars are a whole lot faster than last year's.
Hamilton got the pole in Spain last year posting the time of 1:25.232, and now that's
nothing.

Day 2: Rosberg 1:22.792
Wow that's miles ahead of 2014