Silverstone Testing – Day 2: Bianchi Leads with Ferrari, Van der Garde in the Barrier

Replacement for Kimi Räikkönen, who was rested by Scuderia after his accident at the British Grand Prix, Jules Bianchi – a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy – perfectly fulfilled his role by placing his F14-T at the top of the timesheets, just 20 thousandths off Felipe Massa’s time the day before.

Behind him, Daniil Kvyat clocked the best time, but his 1:12.004 indicated a minor timing issue. So, he is actually positioned just under 3 tenths behind Bianchi. During the morning, the Russian caused a red flag. Added to Vergne’s three on Tuesday, Toro Rosso is the team that caused the most interruptions during these two days.

In third position is Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren, which completed 91 laps, the best total of the day. He is seven-tenths ahead of Giedo van der Garde. Incidentally, the Dutch driver went off the track at the end of the day at Copse, which caused the end of the testing as the barrier he ended up in was too damaged, reminiscent of what happened at the start of the race on Sunday. The driver is reportedly unharmed according to our colleagues at Crash.net.

The winner of the British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton placed his Mercedes in 5th position. The morning was not good for the Stevenage native who had a small off-track excursion at Stowe during a series of aerodynamic tests. The Silver Arrow did not return until the afternoon, completing a total of 42 laps.

Valtteri Bottas, second in the Grand Prix, is 6th on this second day, two seconds behind Bianchi. He is ahead of Max Chilton and Spanish driver Dani Juncadella, Force India’s reserve driver, who are within a tenth.

The four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel, quietly wore down the English asphalt, with 76 laps on the counter. Red Bull conducted tests for Pirelli today (experimental compounds and fixed settings).

As such, this day was an opportunity for Pirelli to demonstrate its 18-inch tires, tested on the Lotus E22 driven by Charles Pic. The reserve driver for the Enstone team completed 38 laps before a technical problem confined him to the pits.

Finally, on the Caterham side, Julian Leal – the young Colombian racing under an Italian license – made his grand debut, completing 51 laps, just one less than the normal GP distance. A problem with the MGU-H control unit significantly handicapped the team led by C. Albers, which also prevented Rio Haryanto from completing the planned running at the wheel of the CT05.