Jerez #F1 Test Day 3 Round up!
Formula One Pre-Season Test
Jerez, Spain,
Day 3 – 30th Janurary 2014
Day 3 was again a day of mixed fortunes with the Mercedes shod cars really putting some good mileage on their cars and hogging the top 4 places in the time sheet (although two of those are McLaren drivers who ran half a day each.) Renault’s problems continued and once again the worst affected team is the reigning world champions Red Bull. All of the days lap counts, times and stories are below.
McLaren
1. Kevin Magnussen 1m23.276s 52 Laps
4. Jenson Button 1m25.030s 40 Laps
McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen got his first taste of the MP4-29 today and topped the lap charts as the Mercedes powered teams continued to show an advantage. His team-mate Button who was driving during the morning set the pace during his early running but was knocked down to fourth fastest by the end of the day.
Williams
2. Felipe Massa 1m23.700s 47 Laps
The Merecedes Engined Williams has also been running well so far in pre-season testing with no real reliability worries. Felipe Massa got his first go in the car today and managed 47 laps posting the 2nd fastest time.
Mercedes
3. Lewis Hamilton 1m23.952s 62 Laps
Lewis Hamilton returned to the cockpit for the first time following the front wing incident on day 1. He managed 62 laps (the highest of any driver) and managed the third fastest time.
Ferrari
5. Fernando Alonso 1m25.495s 58 Laps
Alonso drove the new Ferrari for the dirst time in front of the adoring Spanish public. The car managed 58 laps with his fastest time set on Pirelli’s medium tyres in the early afternoon.
Force India
6. Nico Hulkenberg 1m26.096s 17 Laps
Force India gave Nico Hulkenburg his first taste of 2014 machinery today and was the slowest of the Mercedes engine shod teams. The team also only managed 17 laps during the day but still beat all of the Renault teams.
Toro Rosso
7. Jean-Eric Vergne 1m29.915s 30 Laps
Vergne was by far the busiest driver with a Renault engine managing 30 laps, although he did cause two red flag stoppages so it was not a day of Plain Sailing for junior Red Bull team.
Sauber
8. Adrian Sutil 1m30.161s 34 Laps
Sutil had his first run for his new team today completing 34 laps, however the run was marred by a crash in turn 7 on his 35th lap in which he hit the barrier and damaged the nose and suspension. The car did not return to the track but the team hope to have this repaired by tomorrow. Adrian said that he was caught out by cold temperatures and he found the car very difficult to drive.
Adrian said
“It’s very, very tricky with the new cars low grip and very cold temperatures as well. It caught me out on an installation lap today. We had several issues with the engine and the tyres got colder and with the combination of cold tyres and turbocharger, the torque amount came in too aggressively and I lost it in a very strange way. It was kind of a small incident and we just had to do a nose change. And the suspension was a bit damaged. It’s all repairable, that’s the good part, and we will be out tomorrow on time.”
Caterham
9. Robin Frijns No time 10 Laps
The Caterham failed to complete a flying / timed lap and encoutered continuing issues with their Renault power unit.
Red-Bull
10. Daniel Ricciardo No time 3 Laps
Red Bull are having a torid time at this test. Daniel Ricciardo only managed 3 laps however none were timed and the team seemed to give up in the early afternoon with Horner and Newey leaving the track to fly back to the UK and get to the bottom of the problems they are experiencing.
Marussia
11. Max Chilton No time 5 Laps
Marussia’s new car was only unveiled today and as such this was its first appearance. The team completed a successful installation lap with Chilton at the wheel however he did not set a time / complete a flying lap.
