Barcelona Testing I – Day 1: Maldonado and Lotus F1 at the Front, Nasr and Wolff Collide

For the first time since the start of pre-season private testing, it wasn’t a Ferrari engine that topped the timesheet, as it was the Lotus E23 of Pastor Maldonado that took the lead.

Despite some technical issues during the morning, the Venezuelan set the fastest time in the mid-afternoon, surpassing Kimi Räikkönen in the SF15-T. The two men are ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who also experienced problems, but still managed to complete about sixty laps by the end of Thursday.

Sergio Perez, driving the 2014 VJM07, set the fourth-fastest time, notably against the one who occupied his seat during the morning, the young German Pascal Wehrlein. The latter benefited from Lewis Hamilton’s fever and Nico Rosberg’s neck pain to get into the cockpit of the Mercedes W06 Hybrid. He thus set the eighth and ninth fastest times.

Felipe Nasr, who was leading at midday, and Susie Wolff collided at the braking zone of turn 9 in the early afternoon, resulting in relatively significant damage that still did not prevent the Sauber driver from returning to the track for a few minutes at the very end of the session, thanks to the quick intervention of the marshals and his mechanics.

For McLaren, the day was short due to MGU-K problems that might force the team to only bring out the MP4-30 again on Saturday, while waiting for new parts to arrive.

Barcelona Standings I – Day 1: