Vettel sets the day two pace on ultrasoft tyres - Lotus and Toro Rosso cause red flags during the day
Published by Christine
Ferrari continued to top the times as the second day of testing came to a close, with Sebastian Vettel on top after trying out every single compound in the Pirelli range. He focused on short runs in the morning with longer stints in the afternoon, and brought out a red flag minutes before the session came to an end.
He wasn't the only one. Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen brought out a red flag due to an issue on the car, whilst Jolyon Palmer also halted running when his Lotus developed a turbo problem. Gene Haas was present at the track for the first time to watch his team get some meaningful laps on board, although he admitted they're still concerned about the front wing problem experienced yesterday.
Some aluminium and carbon fibre are integrated, and the theory is, when the aluminium heated up, then cooled down again, it pulled away from the carbon fibre, so it had some weakness there. On the track, with the downforce and the vibrations, that bond was not proper, it separated, and the aluminium just pulled out from the nose, which then let the wing go underneath the car, it ran over it and broke into many little pieces.
- Gene Haas
McLaren managed to complete plenty more laps to add to their tally from yesterday, but they still finished behind Manor with Pascal Wehrlein posting the eighth fastest time for his new team. Mercedes were concentrating on mileage once again, with Nico Rosberg completing a whopping 172 laps.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | S Vettel | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:22.810 | 126 |
| 2 | D Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing | 1:23.525 | 112 |
| 3 | S Pérez | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:23.650 | 101 |
| 4 | N Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:24.867 | 172 |
| 5 | M Ericsson | Sauber F1 Team | 1:25.237 | 108 |
| 6 | E Gutiérrez | Haas F1 Team | 1:25.524 | 79 |
| 7 | V Bottas | Williams Martini Racing | 1:25.648 | 134 |
| 8 | P Wehrlein | Manor Racing MRT | 1:25.925 | 71 |
| 9 | F Alonso | McLaren Honda F1 Team | 1:26.082 | 119 |
| 10 | J Palmer | Renault Sport F1 Team | 1:26.189 | 42 |
| 11 | M Verstappen | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:26.539 | 121 |
Mercedes may be racking up the laps but it was long runs on everyone's programme today. Eight of the eleven teams completed more than 100 laps, and it was Palmer who completed the fewest - 42, after another problem-filled day for Renault.
From our own special analysis (no tech. person involved), we think the car tried to tweet, realised it couldn't & reverted to smoke signals.
RenaultSportF1
110 laps completed by @HaasF1Team in their first two days of testing. For a new team, with their first car, this strikes me as outstanding.
#FactOfTheDay! The W07 completed 801km today: a record for a single day's running in the V6 Hybrid #F1 era!
Exciting first day in the new @ToroRossoSpy! Did a lot of important laps and the STR11 felt good straight away!
Vettel now has to hand over Ferrari duties to Kimi Räikkönen, so it will be interesting to see if they continue at the top of the timesheets for the final two days. Felipe Massa and Daniil Kvyat are also getting their chances in the Williams and Red Bull respectively. We'll also see the debut of Rio Haryanto in the Manor, whilst Nico Hülkenberg gets his first taste of 2016 testing for Force India.
