Bahrain Tests 1 – Day 4: Rosberg Drives Home the Point with Mercedes, Ferrari and Lotus Show Their Hand
The fourth day of this private testing session in Bahrain saw Nico Rosberg set the fastest time, followed by Jenson Button. The two are far ahead of the competition. Kimi Räikkönen completes the top three ahead of a surprising Felipe Nasr, recently confirmed as Williams' third driver.
This is becoming a habit, Mercedes engines once again dominated this day of testing, with only one Ferrari engine, but also a Renault slipping in between the 4 teams powered by the German engine.
On the drivers’ side, if some thought that Lewis Hamilton had gotten the most out of his car today, they must have been astonished by Nico Rosberg’s time yesterday: the German indeed clocked a lap in 1:33.283, improving his teammate’s mark by almost a second. The Mercedes driver caused two red flags, one in the morning following a stall, and the other an hour before the session ended, which led the German team to call it a day.
Behind him, it’s once again Jenson Button in the McLaren who comes the closest… while still remaining 1.6s behind.
Then we find a Ferrari engine in a… Ferrari. After issues on Friday, the Finnish driver was able to complete laps and register the third-fastest time at 1:36.718. However, it was a bad end to the day for the Ferrari driver who caused the last red flag. Behind him, it’s an impressive Felipe Nasr, recently installed as the third driver for Williams, who takes the 4th place. He is followed by a surprising Pastor Maldonado, with the Lotus being able to run a bit more today.
He is ahead of the last Mercedes-powered driver, Sergio Perez, who was only able to complete 19 laps before ending his day after causing a red flag.
The next three teams powered by Renault are Ricciardo, Vergne, Kobayashi and Ericsson. The Red Bull driver finally allowed the red bull team to go under the 1:40 mark. Kamui Kobayashi was able to drive in the late afternoon, while Marcus Ericsson had to stop his car quite quickly in the morning.
Among the drivers who did not set a time, we find Adrian Sutil, hindered for a good part of the day by a monocoque problem and the cause of the penultimate red flag 20 minutes before the end of the session, and Jules Bianchi, who only completed a few installation laps.
It is worth noting that the session ended, as in Jerez, with an accident since Kimi Räikkönen went off the track and damaged his Ferrari F14-T.
| N° | Driver | Team | Times | Gap | Laps |
1 | Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:33:283 | 89 | |
2 | Button | McLaren Mercedes | 1:34:957 | +1.674 | 66 |
3 | Räikkönen | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:36:718 | +3.435 | 81 |
4 | Nasr | Williams F1 Team | 1:37:569 | +4.286 | 87 |
5 | Maldonado | Lotus F1 Team | 1:38:707 | +5.424 | 59 |
6 | Perez | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:39:258 | +5.975 | 19 |
7 | Ricciardo | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:39:837 | +6.554 | 15 |
8 | Vergne | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:40:472 | +7.189 | 19 |
9 | Kobayashi | Caterham F1 Team | 1:43:027 | +9.744 | 17 |
10 | Ericsson | Caterham F1 Team | 1:45:027 | +11.744 | 4 |
11 | Sutil | Sauber F1 Team | 7 | ||
12 | Bianchi | Marussia F1 Team | 5 |
