Caterham validate Renault reliability on third day - Hamilton is fastest, Williams practice pit stops and Marussia fall behind
Published by Christine
The headlines were all about Red Bull again today, as the champions opted to call a halt to their day's running before the session was officially over. They're still finding and dealing with problems, but personally, I thought Marussia's day was far worse. Max Chilton was in the car but only managed four laps before returning to the garage. The team set about changing the engine, and the process is so involved now that they weren't done by the end of the day.
There were plenty of other mechanical gremlins throughout the field, though. Kimi Räikkönen suffered telemetry problems, Esteban Gutiérrez mentioned several problems that were fixed quickly, whilst Pastor Maldonado brought out two red flags through the course of the session.
We started the day with a promising morning. Pastor settled in very quickly and we were able to make some progress with the car. Unfortunately, in the afternoon we had a number of gearbox related problems. Renault have made good progress with the software and Energy Store so we are headed in the right direction in that regards.
- Alan Permane, trackside operations director, Lotus
Permane also mentioned there are parts coming from Enstone to fix the gearbox issues, and thus they may not be out and about first thing tomorrow, when the final day of testing begins.
Meanwhile, Williams were running two drivers with both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas in action in the car. Massa completed 60 laps and was the third fastest driver out there, whilst Bottas completed 55 laps but didn't set a time. Pitstop practice was the name of the game, and it seems like they got plenty of it!
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | L Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:34.263 | 67 |
| 2 | J Button | McLaren Mercedes | 1:34.976 | 103 |
| 3 | F Massa | Williams F1 Team | 1:37.066 | 60 |
| 4 | E Gutiérrez | Sauber | 1:37.180 | 96 |
| 5 | S Pérez | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:37.367 | 57 |
| 6 | K Räikkönen | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:37.476 | 44 |
| 7 | D Kvyat | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:38.974 | 57 |
| 8 | P Maldonado | Lotus F1 Team | 1:39.642 | 26 |
| 9 | D Ricciardo | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:40.781 | 28 |
| 10 | M Ericsson | Caterham F1 Team | 1:42.130 | 98 |
| 11 | M Chilton | Marussia F1 Team | 1:46.672 | 4 |
| 12 | V Bottas | Williams F1 Team | No time | 55 |
Marcus Ericsson completed almost 100 laps which has given him plenty of practice as he prepares for his first season in F1. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton posted the fastest time of the day, ahead of Jenson Button - who was in a good mood having proposed to his girlfriend!
Another great day testing! The car seems to be responding well to my style of driving and the team are doing a great #Bahrain #TeamLH
LewisHamilton
Plenty of pitstops and race starts practiced this morning. Car ran again without problems and all went well #FW36 #77
98 laps for @Ericsson_Marcus means we've had another solid day at T02. Today it was all about long runs and mileage, and we've achieved both
DR: The car is definitely making progress though. Tomorrow it would be nice to get more laps in and then roll on next week.
It's the final day of this week's running tomorrow, a last chance for the drivers to get some good mileage in before a brief break. Kobayashi and Bianchi are both due back in the car, whilst Maldonado and Räikkönen will hope for untroubled days as their running continues.
