Barcelona Tests – Day 2: Maldonado finishes beautifully, ahead of Rosberg and Räikkönen
Unchanged top three, although the order is not quite the same for this second batch of F1 pre-season testing in Barcelona: Pastor Maldonado (Lotus) leads Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari).
Unlike this Wednesday morning, the afternoon was calmer in Barcelona as the session was only interrupted once, due to Daniel Juncadella going off the track and into a gravel trap in his Force India.
In terms of lap times, it was Pastor Maldonado who set the fastest time of the day with 1:24.871 on super soft tires, ultra efficient on this abrasive track. He is more than a second ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes and Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari, who managed to make up for lost time after a spoiled day yesterday.
Next are Esteban Gutierrez in the Sauber and Susie Wolff in the Williams. The Austrian driver completed 55 laps of the Catalan track after a spin in the morning that immobilized her for nearly an hour and a half.
On the side of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull, after a late start to the day, completed 72 laps. As for Stoffel Vandoorne, the tire testing day was very productive as the Belgian completed 136 laps for McLaren.
| No | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
1 | Maldonado | Lotus F1 Team | 1:24.871 | 102 | |
2 | Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:25.805 | +0.934 | 102 |
3 | Räikkönen | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:26.480 | +1.609 | 93 |
4 | Gutierrez | Sauber F1 Team | 1:26.972 | +2.101 | 84 |
5 | Wolff | Williams Martini Racing | 1:27.280 | +2.409 | 55 |
6 | Bianchi | Marussia F1 Team | 1:27.718 | +2.847 | 55 |
7 | Vettel | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:27.973 | +3.102 | 72 |
8 | Juncadella | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:28.278 | +3.407 | 91 |
9 | Vandoorne | McLaren Mercedes | 1:28.441 | +3.570 | 136 |
10 | Kvyat | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:28.910 | +4.039 | 21 |
11 | Kobayashi | Caterham F1 Team | DNS |