Perez stays top as Red Bull make progress

(Sahara Force India Formula One Team)

 

Force India's Sergio Perez was the pace setter on Friday for the second day in a row as the sport reaches the halfway point of the final winter test. Red Bull Racing had a far more productive day then they have experienced so far as Daniel Ricciardo completed 66 laps and set the third fastest time of the day.

 

This was good news for the reigning world champions who have suffered major reliability issues during the winter testing phase. Despite their good fortunes today the team were forced to deny claims that world champion Sebastian Vettel pulled a 'hissy fit' during testing in Jerez. The German takes over driving the RB10 tomorrow and will complete the test on Sunday.

 

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was second fastest in the F14T with a time of 1m 35.634s which was 0.064s slower then Sergio Perez. He completed the most amount of laps today, a massive 122 laps.

 

Felipe Massa was fourth fastest for the Williams F1 Team as he continued to impress in the FW36. The Brazilian completed 103 laps.

 

McLaren's Jenson Button had a disappointing day McLaren after stopping out on track with a technical issue on his MP4-29. Despite completing only 52 laps Button was fifth fastest for the Woking based team.

 

It was a great day for Marussia's Jules Bianchi as the French driver completed 75 laps and finished the day in 6th place for the Banbury based outfit.

 

Mercedes AMG's Lewis Hamilton had a difficult day as he experienced a technical issue with his W05 this morning and stopped out on track. However, the 2008 world champion completed 89 laps but was 3.4 seconds behind Sergio Perez.

 

Jean Eric Vergne was 8th fastest for the Renault powered Toro Rosso team who have experienced a nightmare test in Bahrain so far with the new Renault engine.

 

Esteban Gutierrez was 9th fastest for the Sauber F1 Team. The Mexican completed 106 laps in the C33.

 

Pastor Maldonado endured another difficult day for the Lotus F1 Team as he could only manage to complete 31 laps and was 6 seconds off the pace. Romain Grosjean will now take over the running of the E22.

 

Caterham's Marcus Ericsson completed the timesheets in 11th place and managed to rack up 55 laps for the Leafield based team.

 

©Ben Johnston 2014