Abu Dhabi Testing – Day 2 (Morning): Wehrlein and Mercedes on Top, McLaren Honda Still Struggling
The morning of the second day of private testing in Abu Dhabi is dominated by Pascal Wehrlein in his Mercedes. As yesterday, McLaren was unable to complete a single lap.
Mercedes takes the lead in the private tests held in Abu Dhabi for what will be the last day of running for the 2014 version F1 cars this year. But the W05 Hybrid is in the hands of young DTM driver Pascal Wehrlein, who did not hesitate to finish the first part of the day at the top of a rather relative time sheet.
The German outpaces Max Verstappen: the future Toro Rosso driver managed to complete 63 laps of the Yas Marina circuit, making him the most diligent on track this morning. He outpaces a GP2 regular, Raffaele Marciello, driving the Ferrari F14-T.
One of his colleagues from the F1 feeder series, Stoffel Vandoorne, is still stuck in the pits following the discovery shortly before the session began of an electrical issue that was completely unknown to the McLaren and Honda team, according to Eric Boullier. With 3 laps in 12 hours of testing, the debut—and end—of the MP4-29H/1X1 development car is chaotic, similar to most of its competitors during the 2013-2014 off-season.
| N° | Driver | Team | Times | Gap | Laps |
1 | Wehrlein | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:44.557 | 42 | |
2 | Verstappen | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:45.222 | +0.665 | 63 |
3 | Marciello | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:45.376 | +0.819 | 48 |
4 | Ricciardo | Infiniti Red Bull Racing | 1:45.666 | +1.109 | 59 |
5 | Nasr | Williams Martini Racing | 1:45.937 | +1.380 | 21 |
6 | Ocon | Lotus F1 Team | 1:47.013 | +2.456 | 34 |
7 | Ericsson | Sauber F1 Team | 1:47.173 | +2.616 | 61 |
8 | Stevens | Caterham F1 Team | 1:48.348 | +3.791 | 43 |
9 | Goddard | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:48.738 | +4.181 | 33 |
10 | Vandoorne | McLaren Honda | 0 |
