Vettel ends day one in Jerez on top for Scuderia Ferrari

(Scuderia Ferrari via Twitter)

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time on the opening day of winter testing at the Jerez Circuit in Spain. The German completed 60 laps in the SF15-T and set a fastest time of 1m 22.620s ending the day just ahead of the Sauber F1 Team’s Marcus Ericsson who despite bringing the red flag out early on completed 53 laps with a fastest time of 1m 22.777s.

Nico Rosberg was third fastest for the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team having led the way this morning after setting a time of 1m 23.106s. The German hit the ground running in the new W06 raking up 157 laps.

Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest for Infiniti Red Bull Racing completing 35 laps in the RB11 and ending the day with a time of 1m 23.338s.

Valtteri Bottas was fifth fastest for the Williams Martini Racing Team, the Finn completed 73 laps in the FW37 with a time of 1m 23.906s finishing just ahead of Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jnr who completed 46 laps with a fastest time of 1m 25.327s. 

McLaren Honda’s Fernando Alonso rounded out the timesheets with a 1m 40.738s, completing just 6 laps as the Woking based outfit were left in garage for a while as they worked on an issue with the MP4-30.

The times from today have to be taken with a pinch of salt as it was the opening day of the test. The Lotus F1 Team missed running today as the E23 is currently en-route to Jerez and is expected to be on track tomorrow.

Monday’s line up:

Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

Lewis Hamilton

Infiniti Red Bull Racing

Daniil Kvyat

Williams Martini Racing

Valtteri Bottas

Scuderia Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel

McLaren Honda

Jenson Button

Scuderia Toro Rosso

Max Verstappen

As the Lotus F1 Team missed the opening day of the test is likely that Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean will share the driving duties on Monday.

Sauber F1 Team

Felipe Nasr

© Ben Johnston 2015