Hamilton quickest on penultimate day

Published on 28 February 2015 by Stefan Meens

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes at the top of time tables for the second consecutive day. On the penultimate day of the third and final pre-season test, the reigning world champion lapped the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya 76 times. His 1:23.022 was the fastest lap of the day.

Williams continued their strong start to the 2015 campaign with Felipe Massa finishing second ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. For Scuderia Toro Rosso, it was Carlos Sainz who took to the track after Max Verstappen drove their new car on Fridat. A 1:24.191 would grant the Spaniard fourth spot in the rankings after completing 132 laps.

The drivers arrived at a cold circuit with the thermometer indicating a mere 3 degrees Celsius. In these chilly conditions, the teams are not focused on setting quick times but are focussed on acquiring a lot of data. Therefore, many cars were send out equipped with aero-frames and flow-viz paint to measure the aerodynamic flow.

Scuderia Toro Roso practiced pit stops during the morning session. Nevertheless, Max' team mate clocked plenty of timed laps and finished the first part of the day in eighth place. Toro Rosso Chief Race Engineer Phil Charles said: “In the morning, we did just a small amount of data acquisition runs, before switching our focus to the needs of the driver. So it was nice for Carlos that he was able to concentrate on getting the car to suit him in terms of set-up and the feel of the car.” 

In the afternoon, most teams opted to do long runs and complete race simulations. Due to the improved reliability of this year's cars, most drivers completed over a hundred laps today. Only Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen fell short of a centenary. The latter only managed 39 laps due to an oil leak.

With an hour to go it looked like the third day would end without any interruptions. Unfortunately, Marcus Ericsson's Sauber decided otherwise. The Swede is forced to park his car in turn 3, causing the first red flag of the day.

After the track is cleared, it is Carlos Sainz who, following Hamilton, Raikkonen and Massa's example, also switches to the soft tyre for a couple of fast laps. The rookie is able to set a 1:24.191 but sees his STR10 come to a halt in turn 3 due to an electrical problem. Nevertheless, Toro Rosso had a productive day wit Charles stating it was “Another good day’s work during in which we got through a range of tests.”

On the fourth and final day of the last pre-season test, Sainz makes way for Max who will have a final opportunity in the STR10 before heading to Melbourne for the first Grand Prix of 2015. 


Third pre-season test - Barcelona day 3 - Saturday 28 February

Pos      Driver                 Car              Time                   Laps
1 	 Lewis Hamilton	        Mercedes	 1:23.022s		(76)
2 	 Felipe Massa		Williams	 1:23.262s  +0.240	(102)
3 	 Kimi Raikkonen	        Ferrari	 	 1:23.276s  +0.254	(136)
4 	 Carlos Sainz		Toro Rosso	 1:24.191s  +1.169	(132)
5 	 Romain Grosjean	Lotus	 	 1:24.200s  +1.178	(116)
6 	 Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	 	 1:24.477s  +1.455	(123)
7 	 Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	 1:24.939s  +1.917	(158)
8 	 Kevin Magnussen	McLaren	         1:25.225s  +2.203	(39)
9 	 Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	 1:25.742s  +2.720	(128)

Via Twitter and Facebook we'll keep you updated throughout the test followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action. You can find the schedule for the Barcelona test here. Don't forget to check out the Barcelona photo album.