Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel were setting the top times early in the session, before Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo jumped to the top of the timings just past the hour mark. The team didn’t look too strong during the first test, but Ricciardo has already warned that there was more to come from the Red Bull.
Renault were the first to hit problems when Jolyon Palmer, who was running in the morning, stopped in the pit lane. The team first said they had “teething problems” but later revealed the engine needed to be swapped due to a sensor issue.
“The guys saw something in the data and we had to stop,” Palmer explained. “They’re changing [the engine] now and putting it back together. Hopefully Nico [Hulkenberg] gets a good run and we can save some laps for the day, would be nice to get three clean goes for the rest of the week.”
Around the same time, McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne disappeared into the pit lane, not to be seen until after the lunch break as the team changed his Honda engine due to an electrical problem.
“It’s frustrating for everybody,” said Eric Boullier. “When you don’t have a lot of days of testing you want to make the most of it. It’s frustrating for Stoffel and for us as well.”
McLaren have already lost out on essentially two days of testing last week due to problems with their engine.
Williams weren’t having any problems, though. Felipe Massa got in the car for the first time since the start of the first test. The Brazilian managed to set a time just two hundredths of a second slower than Bottas’ benchmark, an impressive feat for a driver who only retired a few months ago.
It was a time that wouldn’t be beaten in the afternoon session. Though some teams did put together fast laps and moved up the timing screen, many spent the afternoon running race simulations and longer runs.
Both Renault and McLaren managed to get back out, with Vandoorne’s total number of laps rising to 80 and Renault, split between Palmer and Hulkenberg, managed 68 laps before Hulkenberg stopped on the start-finish straight in the closing minutes of the afternoon session.
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Do you think this a sign that Williams are on the bounce back or a one off? Is there any hope Honda will solve their problems before Australia? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
