Jerez Tests – Day 2: Grosjean Tops the Timesheets
For his last day in Jerez driving the Lotus E21, Romain Grosjean made a mark by recording the best time of the day. During his first official tests behind the wheel of the Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton completed only a few laps before suffering an off-track excursion.
After finishing in 3rd place yesterday, Romain Grosjean did better today for his last day of testing in the E21 at Jerez. The French driver placed his Lotus at the top of the timesheets with a lap time of 1:18.218. He was the only one to go under 1 minute 19 seconds on a lap today.
Behind Grosjean, Paul di Resta follows at the wheel of the VJM06 and Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of the STR8. Both men are leading a group of eight drivers who have set a lap time in 1 minute and 19 seconds. At the back of the pack, we find Luiz Razia, officially announced this morning as a Marussia driver.
Overall, the drivers managed to complete more laps than yesterday, with Mark Webber finishing at the top of the track attendance leaderboard with 101 laps completed. He is followed by Nico Hülkenberg (99 laps) and Romain Grosjean and Paul di Resta (95 laps each). At the bottom of this ranking, as yesterday, is a Mercedes, driven by Lewis Hamilton.
The British driver indeed experienced an issue with his rear brakes and went straight into a tire wall, damaging his F1 W04 in the process (see the video below). He was unable to continue after this incident. It was the second red flag among the four deployed today. The first was caused by Daniel Ricciardo, the second by Hamilton, the third by Luiz Razia, and the fourth and final by Romain Grosjean and Nico Hülkenberg, both stopping on track at the end of the session.
Translate: If you want to know in detail what happened today, you can relive the live of this day.
Tomorrow, many changes are expected, Pic will take over from Van der Garde at Caterham, Button will be back behind the wheel of the McLaren, Räikkönen will replace Grosjean at Lotus, Vergne will replace Ricciardo, Vettel will take over from Webber at Red Bull, Bottas will succeed Maldonado, Guttiérez will replace Hülkenberg, and Rosberg will be back behind the wheel of the F1 W04. No change at Ferrari with Massa. At Sahara Force India, James Rossiter is expected to start the day and Paul di Resta to finish it. At Marussia, Chilton was supposed to drive today but it was Razia who was behind the wheel of the MR02, so it is likely that the Briton will return to the track tomorrow, but this remains to be confirmed.
Ranking of the second day of private testing of the season /f1/news/14943-official-luiz-razia-becomes-full-time-driver-at-marussia.html held in Jerez
| No | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
1 | Grosjean | Lotus F1 Team | 1:18.218 | 95 | |
2 | di Resta | Sahara Force India | 1:19.003 | +0.785 | 95 |
3 | Ricciardo | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:19.134 | +0.916 | 83 |
4 | Webber | Red Bull Racing | 1:19.338 | +1.120 | 101 |
5 | Hülkenberg | Sauber F1 Team | 1:19.502 | +1.284 | 99 |
6 | Hamilton | Mercedes AMG F1 | 1:19.519 | +1.301 | 15 |
7 | Perez | McLaren Mercedes | 1:19.572 | +1.354 | 81 |
8 | Massa | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:19.914 | +1.696 | 78 |
9 | Maldonado | Williams F1 Team | 1:20.693 | +2.475 | 71 |
10 | Rossiter | Sahara Force India | 1:21.273 | +3.055 | 19 |
11 | Van der Garde | Caterham F1 Team | 1:21.311 | +3.093 | 88 |
12 | Razia | Marussia F1 Team | 1:23.537 | +5.319 | 31 |
From our special correspondent in Jerez
