09:00-
A flurry of activity greets us here at an overcast Circuito de Jerez as the only team yet to make it out on circuit is Lotus. Times out on the circuit are in the 1:30s currently as the teams ease into the morning.
Raikkonen has a wobble on his first lap out, then misses the turn in to the Ayrton Senna Chicane on his second lap. He seems less happy in this car than Vettel, but its still very early.
Carlos Sainz Jr is in the car once more for Toro Rosso. He almost spins off as he turns into turn 1 after putting his tyres out on a damp patch of the track. He locks up, but holds it together to.
35 minutes in and we have a lull on track. Rosberg 11 laps, Nasr 9 laps, Sainz 6 laps, Ricciardo 5 laps.
Felipe Massa heads out on track with intermediate boots on. Multiple burnouts as he heads along the pit lane. Williams have been consistent, but unspectacular so far.
Felipa Nasr is out on track, but far from the limit as he circulates the 4.42km circuit. After a positive day yesterday the Brazilian was bullish about his chances in the coming season.
Track and air temperature hovering around 11°C here at Jerez. A light westerly wind which is drying the track nicely, although a clear dry line remains on the pit straight. Nico Rosberg returns to the track as he cruises along the past an empty grandstand.
If you missed the report from day 2 in Jerez, then catch it here… Vettel was on top, as the new boys at Sauber went from strength to strength.
10:00 –
From @ajHuntF1 – @alo_oficial on his way out. @McLarenF1 sounding like an angry tiger! #F1 #TJ13 #F1TestJerez pic.twitter.com/E2Z3HeIUW5
— TheJudge13 (@thejudge13) February 3, 2015
Alonso has now completed 11 laps as the work today starts with a sensor on the left of the nose. He returns to the pits after setting a 1:35.027 last lap.
Carlos Sainz Jr breaks the silence here as he does a practice start at the end of the pit lane. The Renault powertrain a farcry from the limp and choking machine 12 months ago. TJ13’s @ajhuntf1 is out on track and recorded this…
From @ajHuntF1 – @carlosainz whizzing past. Practice starts for young #Spaniard #F1 #F1TestJerez #TJ13 pic.twitter.com/8JEIPE0NxT
— TheJudge13 (@thejudge13) February 3, 2015
Red Flag as GP2 graduate Nasr takes a trip into the gravel at turn 9. After all the plaudits that were afforded to him yesterday the bubble bursts for the F1 rookie. 21 laps completed before this.
A brief pause to catch a cup of tea then…
Green flag so we are GO GO GO once more. Fernando Alonso wastes no time in getting back out on track.
Kimi Raikkonen back out on track now as he pushes towards a double-digit lap count. Lapping in the 1:37s currently.
11:00 –
2 hours in and it is Nico Rosberg who leads the way with both the fastest lap time and most laps completed, a 1:33.059 and 27. Nasr, who is now back to the Sauber garage, 22 laps, Alonso completes 19 and Sainz Jr through 18 laps.
Kimi Raikkonen back out on track now as he pushes towards a double-digit lap count. Lapping in the 1:37s currently, although he seems to be struggling in the wet conditions.
On-track TJ13 man @ajhuntf1 reports of Kimi being “very twitchy through turn 1. Back keeps on stepping out. Tentative through turn 2. Merc hooked up through both.”
Kimi Raikkonen is now fastest with a 1:28.137.
#Lauda at turn 2 investigating reports of @McLarenF1 tiger on track. #F1 #TJ13 #F1TestJerez pic.twitter.com/c5LkLOE3oo
— TheJudge13 (@thejudge13) February 3, 2015
Nico Rosberg then takes the top spot back with a 1:27.575, then a 1:27.400 and now a 1:27.073. The W06 starting to push.
Rosberg glued to the track
12:00 –
Still only 5 laps for the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo. The team’s Jerez woes continue, but the Lotus E23 is now back on track. Pastor Maldonado sets a 1:26.911 on his eleventh lap of the day.
Nico Rosberg remains in close pursuit of the new Mercedes powered team, Lotus, then overtakes into turn 13 on lap 80.
Carlos Sainz Jr is still out on track with Nico Rosberg for company. 51 laps completed for the Madrid born rookie as he makes the step up from Formula Renault series. After taking the title with 7 wins from 17 races, he’ll be hoping to continue that success.
After all the strong running today the Mercedes W06 now stops out on track at turn 10, causing the second red flag of the day.
Truck now deployed to pick up the Mercedes 2015 challenger
The lack of running this morning from Red Bull has been caused by an engine change. The team say they expect to make it out later this afternoon.
Loving the sound of the trailing throttle into T2, fellas 🙂
More please (just in case the official race coverage fails to do it all justice – again – when the season starts proper).
Then you’ll probably like this then….
Thanks for that 🙂
Nice 1 @Fortis96, they do sound better, you can hear the cars approaching rather than them just arriving at the corner and being silent until the power is applied like last year. The McLaren sounds a bit dodgy up the start/finish straight, not smooth like the others, kind of bouncy, but it all bodes well, let’s hope FOM can make a step forward in the recording and broadcasting of the ambient sound around the track as well as the on-board shots.
Nice upload, although I’d say they aren’t any louder than last season to be fair. I went to Spa last year and hearing this reminded me of how they actually sound in real life. Telly just ruins the sound but close up like this I think they sound much better than a V8 screaming at you until your head hurts!!
Where did you find this clip by the way?
Thanks for the upload Forti.
As CV pointed out the McH has a strange reverb that came thru on day 2 as well.
Forti96 is making me think of the yellow Italian cars.. 🙂
These cars are sounding a lot louder than last year…..
So vettel likes the car more than kimi does? Or was it all down to the conditions on track? Or the tests that ferrari chose to run?
most probably conditions. Kimi was running sensors on the side of his car and the track conditions were far were today.
Re- Senor on McLaren nose.
I’ve read else where this is a camera/measuring device to see how far the front wing is deflecting under aerodynamic load, very RedBull wouldn’t you say. Looks like Peter P has definitely embraced some of Newey’s philosophies when it comes to running on the limit of the regs, just what McLaren need as they have seemed very conservative the last few seasons with their solutions, often staying comfortably within the spirt of the regulations rather than at the limit of the written word of the regulations.
Peter Prod designed the RB cars from Newey’s ideas.. it’s no surprise then that he has then created a ‘Red Bull’-Honda 😛
Thanks for the great coverage. The cars look much better this year. Still sound like crap, IMHO…. I suspect that this engine formula will be changing after 2016 if reports are to believed. Let’s hope so for the sake of the show.
Loud noises don’t equal great racing…..
And how has this engine formula, hurt the ‘show’? Was the show anymore spectacular when they had the V10’s and 8s screaming the place down? Didn’t we still have one team dominance and processional racing?
>Didn’t we still have one team dominance and processional racing?
No we hadn’t. None of the last 25 seasons was as one-sided as 2014. in 2014 we had both pole positions and wins split among 3 drivers from only two teams. That hasn’t happened since 1988. Compare that to 2012 – allegedly a year of “Red Bull dominance” : Poles (7 drivers from 4 teams), Wins (8 drivers from 6 teams) Even 2011 and 2013 – the years when the Red Bull was *really* better than anything out there, we had more variety:
2011: Poles (3 drivers from 2 teams), Wins (4 drivers from 3 teams)
2013: Poles (4 drivers from 2 teams), Wins (5 drivers from 4 teams)
We had certain nationalistic individuals from Britain say, Vettel winning was wrong because it was ‘all the car’. Well what was last year then?Driving excellence? 2014 was the worst season in decades.
It really pisses me off. For four years, I’ve listened to people saying Vettel doesn’t deserve his title, but when Lewis lames his way to a title in the most superior machine since ever, it’s all about him. Apply the same friggin’ standards folks, will ya?
Hippo what exactly does the comments above has to do with either Seb or Lewis?
This is about noise and whether or not th new regs will destroy the ‘show’.
So wasn’t 2002 a year of one side processional racing as well? Ferrari won 15 of the 17 races with Schumi winning 11.
Even in 2002 we had 4 different winners from three different teams. Nothing as far as I can remember was as one-sided as last year. Even when Vettel won 13 (!) races a year, we had more different winners. If everybody else is just there to make up the numbers, it’ll inevitably hurt the sport. The Schumacher fans of course loved 2002, but everyone else wanted to take the Laqncaster bombers out of mothballs (at least if contemporary lingo in the interwebs at the time was any indication)
Ohhhh…..nice one Hips, I hoped you’d pop up with something Hamiltonesque…..we seem to have an imposter here today; got a Forti96 posting as well as your usual friend 🙂
Lol no imposter that’s me, I was using my work computer, didn’t even realise that It was incorrect….
Will rectify that tomorrow
2013 was just a tyre cock-up, the change decimated what was looking like a nice season, that still would have had Vettel winning anyway, just with less domination. It was definitely good for Grosjean though, who does well on harder tyres almost exclusively, a bit like Leal in GP2, or Kimi with the softer versions.
Vettel will always deserve at least two titles just on his pace alone IMO – 2011 and 2013. In 2012, he proved his mettle when things were more even (and McLaren dropped the ball again).