Day 2 of Jerez testing has Lotus on top, as Mercedes continue to struggle - Romain Grosjean heads up second day of testing, as Hamilton crashes out
Published by Christine
With everything nicely warmed up for testing, the second day unfolded much the same as the first. Romain Grosjean was fast out of the gate, leading the way for much of the day and then going even faster to secure his place on top. Most of the attention was on Mercedes, however, as Lewis Hamilton made his debut for the team.
It wasn't smooth going and Hamilton found his test day cut short when a brake failure saw him crash into the tyre barriers. Thankfully unharmed, he climbed from the car and was not to get back in it again, as for the second day in a row, Mercedes opted to curtail their running in favour of patching up the machinery.
We had a good start but then unfortunately we had a failure which brought our day to an early end. These things happen and it's all part of testing. Of course, it's better that we get these small issues out of the way sooner rather than later, and the guys are working really hard to overcome them.
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
Elsewhere, Force India found themselves with two drivers (hurrah!), albeit briefly, as James Rossiter was granted a handful of laps alongside Paul di Resta. Nico Hülkenberg was forced to stop out on the circuit after running out of fuel, whilst new Marussia signing Luiz Razia found the car had an engine problem that stopped him in his tracks.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | 1:18.218 | 95 |
| 2 | Paul di Resta | Force India | 1:19.003 | 95 |
| 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Toro Rosso | 1:19.134 | 83 |
| 4 | Mark Webber | Red Bull | 1:19.338 | 101 |
| 5 | Nico Hülkenberg | Sauber | 1:19.502 | 99 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:19.519 | 15 |
| 7 | Sergio Pérez | McLaren | 1:19.572 | 81 |
| 8 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:19.914 | 78 |
| 9 | Pastor Maldonado | Williams | 1:20.693 | 71 |
| 10 | James Rossiter | Force India | 1:21.273 | 19 |
| 11 | Giedo van der Garde | Caterham | 1:21.311 | 88 |
| 12 | Luiz Razia | Marussia | 1:23.537 | 31 |
Mark Webber completed a heap of laps, breaking the 100 lap marker, on his second day in the RB9. He will hand over to Sebastian Vettel tomorrow, so make the most of this lovely F1 Big Picture while you can. Felipe Massa continued his hard but so far unremarkable work, alongside Sergio Pérez who took a turn in the McLaren, finishing much further down the order than his teammate yesterday.
Very happy with our fist Day!! A very busy day, good program and getting there with the adaptation
SChecoPerez
Clutch issue this morning - simple fix but awkward to get to so took some time.... Back to work now though! #Jerez
By way of an update the car stopped with an as yet undiagnosed engine problem. Now the car is back anyway we've started our KERS checks
Two great day of testing at #Jerez. Car felt good and feelings were there. Good to get back in action with @Lotus_F1Team ! Boys are amazing
It's all change tomorrow, as Vettel replaces Webber for Red Bull, and Kimi Räikkönen hits the track on behalf of Lotus. Esteban Gutiérrez will be on track for Sauber, and Valtteri Bottas gets in on the action for Williams (in last year's car).
