After Valtteri Bottas and Williams topped the first day of the post-season Abu Dhabi test, the second day saw AMG Mercedes return to the top of the times with their young reserve and DTM driver Pascal Wehrlein. He was only appointed reserve driver in September, yet his showed tremendous pace in his first outing in an F1 car to top the times.
Wehrlein set his 1m42.642 lap time in the final minutes of the day to go fastest, and 0.7 seconds quicker than the fastest lap from Bottas yesterday. Ferrari were once again second in today's running, although this time it was their young academy driver Raffaele Marciello who set this time on his F1 debut also.
Max Verstappen put his accident yesterday behind him to put in the third fastest time on his second day of running. Toro Rosso are clearly wanting to give Verstappen as much time as possible in the car before his debut next year, and he was able to complete a significant amount of laps both days to further acquaint himself with Toro Rosso and F1.
Marcus Ericsson carried his experience from yesterday as he improved to the 4th fastest time today, as he settles in with his new Sauber team before next year. Will Stevens also improved his time from yesterday as he put the Caterham 5th, with the experience he gained these last two days massively enhancing his experience of F1 and therefore his chances of remaining with Caterham should they find a buyer and carry on in 2015.
Spike Goddard took over Jolyon Palmer in the Sahara-Force India and set the 6th fastest time in his F1 debut, after a difficult European F3 campaign this experience will greatly help him as he looks to progress the single seater ladder. Daniel Ricciardo took over the Red Bull from Carlos Sainz Jr and finished his hugely impressive 2014 season with the 7th fastest time in the final F1 test of the year.
Williams reserve driver Felipe Nasr took over from Valtteri Bottas today, and set the 8th fastest time in his final running in a Williams F1 car before he joins the Sauber team for next year. Behind him both GP3 champion Alex Lynn and European F3 champion Esteban Ocon shared the day's running for the Lotus team. Lynn was making his F1 debut and went faster than Ocon, although changing conditions make comparing times impossible.
The final runner once again was Stoffel Vandoorne, as the McLaren-Honda once again suffered significant problems much like yesterday. Whilst yesterday it was electrical and fuel/data problems which halted the team to only 3 installation laps yesterday, today it seems a mystery problem afflicted the team and Vandoorne only managed 2 installation laps. This is not a good start for the new McLaren-Honda package, although this is the team's first public running with the package and significant improvements will be made before the first pre-season test of 2014. The full times and laps completed are below.
Abu Dhabi Post season test Day 2 times:
1. Pascal Wehrlein Mercedes 1:42.624 96 laps
2. Raffaele Marciello Ferrari 1:43.208 +0.584 90 laps
3. Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1:43.763 +1.139 78 laps
4. Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:44.551 +1.927 111 laps
5. Will Stevens Caterham 1:44.888 +2.264 43 laps
6. Spike Goddard Force India 1:44.944 +2.320 89 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:45.151 +2.527 88 laps
8. Felipe Nasr Williams 1:45.937 +3.313 83 laps
9. Alex Lynn Lotus 1:46.168 +3.544 34 laps
10. Esteban Ocon Lotus 1:47.013 +4.389 34 laps
11. Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren No time 2 laps
Last edited by a moderator:
