Friday 20 February 2015

Ricciardo fastest on Day 2 in Barcelona

(Ben Johnston 2015)

Infiniti Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo was the pace setter on Friday as the second day of the Barcelona winter test wrapped up at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Speaking following day 2, Ricciardo stated:

“It was good. We wanted to get a day with a 100-plus laps on the board and we did that and more today. It was very solid,” 

We also got through some pit stop practice and some good long runs, which is very positive. I know it’s just testing but it is encouraging seeing us on top or at least in that front group. Obviously you have no idea what everyone is doing, but it is encouraging. The car feels good. It has similar characteristics to RB10 in terms of how the chassis feels but that’s a good thing, as I think we had a pretty good car last year. All in all a really good day’s work.

Infiniti Red Bull Racing's Guillaume Rocquelin stated:

'A good day for the whole team today and a very satisfying follow-up to yesterday. Day one was all about tuning the new elements we had brought here and it was always going to be a bit stop-start but by the end of yesterday we were on top of that and running well and today was the reward for all that hard work. We had a small issue on Daniel’s installation lap, again caused by a software gremlin, but that was quickly sorted and we could get to work on the programme we had in place. In the morning that meant a lot of pit stop practice first thing, giving way to some tyre work in advance of our afternoon programme. We switched over to long runs in the afternoon and by the close of play we’d got through everything we wanted to on the day.

The Australian set a benchmark of 1m 24.574s completed a total of 137 laps ending the day just ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who for the second day in a row ended the day in second place. The Finn completed 90 laps over the course of the day with a fastest time of 1m 24.584s.

It was a great day for the Williams Martini Racing Team. Felipe Massa was in the car and recorded the third fastest time of the day with a 1m 24.672s. The Brazilian completed 88 laps for the Grove based outfit ending the day just ahead of the Sahara Force India Formula One Team’s Sergio Perez who was once again driving the 2014 VJM07. The Mexican set a time of 1m 24.702s completing 121 laps for the Silverstone based outfit.

World champion Lewis Hamilton was back in the car for the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team on Friday having recovered from his fever which prevented him from driving on Thursday. The Englishman finished the day in 5th place in the W06 with a fastest time of 1m 24.923s completing 89 laps and ending the day just ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg who was 6th fastest with a time of 1m 25.556s completing 66 laps.

The German was the first driver to finish outside the 1m 24’s. Fernando Alonso was 7th fastest for McLaren Honda. The Spaniard ended the day not too far off Nico Rosberg’s fastest time. Alonso set a 1m 25.961s to end the day just ahead of the Lotus F1 Team’s Test and Reserve driver Jolyon Palmer. The GP2 champion completed 77 laps and ended the day with a 1m 26.280s.

The Sauber F1 Team’s Marcus Ericsson was 9th fastest for the Swiss based outfit completing 113 laps in the C34 setting a time of 1m 27.334s.

Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr rounded out the time sheets with a 1m 28.941s completing 100 laps of the Barcelona Circuit de Catalunya. Testing continues tomorrow when most teams will have a driver change.

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