#F1 In-Season Testing: Circuit de Catalunya Day 1 – Afternoon Session

· by · in F1 Comment, F1 Testing. ·

Circuit de Catalunya

Hello and welcome back to the second part of today’s test. These are the times as they stood over the lunch break. Mercedes will be happiest after ringing up 78 problem-free laps.

1. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes): 1:24.374
2. Raffaele Marciello (Ferrari): 1:26.648
3. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus): 1:27.338
4. Daniil Kwjat (Red Bull): 1:27.684
5. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso): 1:28.147
6. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber): 1:28.803
7. Nick Yelloly (Force India): 1:28.856
8. Oliver Turvey (McLaren): 1:29.730
9. Felipe Massa (Williams): 1:30.433

Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus needs to be reinforced by the look of it.

Felipe Massa puts his Williams a bit further up the time sheets with a 1:27.944. That looks more like the part of the table where you’d look for a Williams.

The Catalans have meanwhile sorted out their timing issues and we’re no longer forced to guess how quick or not the cars are. Nico Rosberg meanwhile seems to have way too much fun to leave the tally at ‘only’ 78 laps

McLaren have us know that they are not to be expected out any time soon, as they are working on updates. I believe that’s Ronspeak for : Stuff’s broken.

First signs of serious trouble at Mercedes. Last time round nobody felt obliged to show the pitboard. Before lunch that job was taken by Rosberg’s Physio.

The morning repeats itself. After a short initial rush, most cars are back in the pits. Not even Rosberg has managed more than seven laps so far. But some prepare to put us out of our misery

Daniel Schlößer, that’s the aforementioned Physio, has resumed his job at the pit wall, all is well again at the troubled Mercedes AMG team.

Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso is the second pilot to complete a race distance. Marciello in the Ferrari still needs five more laps for that.

With little action out on track, some of our friends become a trifle distracted

Some are so bored, they start posting pornographic material on Twitter

Ferrari and Red Bull have meanwhile rejoined the festivities. Especially the Austrians could really use some solid running. Not only do they have to work out that radical new nose; Renault could certainly use all the data they get as well.

Another one for whom tomorrow can’t arrive quick enough 😉

With only four days of testing available all season one would have thought there’d be more action out there, but not even the lack of wind and the perfect weather can motivate the teams to put in more running.

Even though Rosberg’s time makes all other cars look like GP2 material, he’s still way off the 1:22.792 he did in winter testing. But that was on soft tyres. Today’s time was run on unmarked development rubber.

And yes, Felipe Baby is here, too…

Rosberg is out on track on regulation Mediums, completing his 100th lap of the day.

Extra service for Joe Here are the numbers

Rosberg #6
Marciello #29
Massa #19
Maldonado #13
Turvey #33
Ericsson #9
Yelloly #34
Kvyat #26
Gasly – damned if I know. The car is running without a number on it

Meanwhile Ericsson has put his Sauber second on the list, but still way over two seconds off the Mercedes’ time.

Meanwhile the McLaren boys have debugged the MP4-30 and Oliver Turvey is out on the track, all by himself.

And a correction: Although not visible on the car, according to the now functioning timing screens, Pierre Gasly has the number #38

Seeing that all the test drivers have numbers in the #29 to #38 range, I’m pretty sure they are temporary numbers. It would be a strange coincidence if they all happened to fancy their numbers so close together.

Meanwhile Nico’s had had enough for the moment.

The return of the McLaren was short-lived. Only three laps. Guess that ‘update’ wasn’t quite the success then.

Half-time report for this session:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:24.374, 108 laps
2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:26.624, 57 laps
3. Raffaele Marciello, Ferrari, 1:26.648, 88 laps
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:26.904, 58 laps
5. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:27.338, 58 laps
6. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:27.911, 54 laps
7. Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, 1:28.147, 90 laps
7. Nick Yelloly, Force India, 1:28.856, 74 laps
8. Oliver Turvey, McLaren, 1:29.730, 34 laps

McLaren are still stuck at 34 laps. I wonder how long this can go on like that until someone goes properly ballistic. Neither Fernando Alonso nor Ron Dennis are particularly known for their patience.

Now they try again…

There is little action out there at the moment, except for today’s energizer bunny Nico Rosberg, who’s closing in on the second race distance of the day. 117 laps so far.

We have two more centenarians now. Both Marciello (Ferrari) and Gasly (Toro Rosso) have cracked the 100 lap mark. What’s your excuse Red Bull?

People are becoming seriously bored out there. Someone noticed that the Japanese writing on the McLaren Motorhome has been removed. Word has it an entire helicopter full of divorce lawyers is on an approach vector.

Finally something’s changed on the timing screens. Nick Yelloly improves to 6th in the Force India with a 1:27.396.

The MP4-30 is back with an update that is planned for Montreal. If they hurry up in the final fifty minutes they could perhaps manage to run half as many laps as Mercedes.

Williams are already packing up for the day after only 54 laps. Rosberg has completed the second Grand Prix distance and Pierre Gasly in the STR is only 12 laps away from that mark.

The Honda still sounds as if it is going to vomit pistons at any moment, but at least they have now one more lap than Williams. The car seems only capable of short runs, but at least Turvey could improve to 1:28.813, now less than five seconds slower than the Mercedes.

The last ten minutes are ticking down and most drivers go out for a last dash. Some will probably try to set a time to make the leaderboard look a bit less unflattering.

After a long day of setup work, Lotus have finally found a configuration that Pastor Maldonado feels reasonably comfortable with

Red Bull have at last gotten their stuff together and cracked the century mark literally at the last minute. Nico Rosberg has helped himself to six-hundred and eighty more kilometres of experience with the W06.

checkered_flag And that’s the end of the session, ladies and Gentlemen

With a look at the final standings I bid thee farewell and shall be back on the morrow.

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:24.374, 146 laps
2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:26.624, 98 laps
3. Raffaele Marciello, Ferrari, 1:26.648, 125 laps
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:26.904, 101 laps
5. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:27.338, 60 laps
6. Nick Yelloly, Force India, 1:27.396, 109 laps
7. Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, 1:27.639, 130 laps
8. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:27.911, 54 laps
9. Oliver Turvey, McLaren, 1:28.542, 68 laps

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6 responses to “#F1 In-Season Testing: Circuit de Catalunya Day 1 – Afternoon Session”

  1. Any word on whether Horner is going to call a presser so he can complain about the 70-odd laps @MercedesAMGF1 did this morning? Surely such a disrespect display of engineering competence is either illegal or just not fair.

  2. If you are bored Hippo, maybe you could compile a wiki with the permanent driver numbers – a “lot” of new one must have been assigned… I cant cant find the list at fia.com or formual1.com

  5. Love the picture of pastor in his next charger..Alonso better be prepared for spa!…the road warrior is back in his game

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