Chilton surprise

There was a surprise leader after the first day of testing in Barcelona.

After 60 laps of running, Marussia’s Max Chilton set the fastest time of the day.

Charles Pic for Lotus was second fastest just two-tenths of a second slower, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton third and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen fourth.

Chilton was able to set the fastest time of the day after he set a late time on a dry track on super-soft tyres.

The majority of the day had previously been rain affected.

But whilst it would be easy to just dismiss the Marussia’s performance, if you take a closer look at the timings it shows significant progress for the team.

On Saturday for Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, Marussia ran the medium compound tyre and set a time three seconds slower.

?Generally we?ve had quite a successful day and to end it in P1 is obviously a real bonus, We?ve made steady progress throughout the day and to get the car to such a good place in terms of set-up, and then be able to see just how much we can extract from it, is a really big step from the race on Sunday to what we have achieved today. With another day of testing, I think we can leave Barcelona with the package in a really strong position.? Chilton told Formula1.com.

Elsewhere it was another frustrating day for Ferrari with Kimi limited to just 21 laps due to a power unit failure.

Unofficial Tuesday times from Barcelona

1. Max Chilton, Marussia, 1m 26.434s, 60 laps

2. Charles Pic, Lotus, 1m 26.661s, 70 laps

3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 26.674s, 79 laps

4. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 26.965s, 21 laps

5. Jean-Eric Vergne, Toro Rosso, 1m 27.724s, 52 laps

6. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 27.727s, 53 laps

7. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 27.756s, 55 laps

8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 28.333s, 74 laps

9. Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham, 1m 30.101s, 72 laps

10. Sebastien Buemi, Red Bull, 1m 31.440s, 54 laps

11. Giedo van der Garde, Sauber, 1m 31.783s, 86 laps