Test days a success for Wolff and Vandoorne

The Formula One teams completed a full second days test at Barcelona on Wednesday.

Just like on Tuesday, the fastest time of the day was set late on with Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado, beating Saturday’s pole position time on a new set of Pirelli super-soft tyres.

Overall however the attention of the day was on two relative newbie’s to Formula One with Williams test driver Susie Wolff completing 55 laps ahead of her scheduled running in Free Practice One at both the German and British Grand Prix.

‘This was my first opportunity to drive the FW36 and I learnt a lot about how to drive these new look cars which are very different to previous seasons,’ Wolff said to formula1.com.

‘With last year’s car the harder you pushed the faster you went, but now you have to manage certain elements a lot more. The cars also have a lot more torque which was a steep learning curve, and this caught me out at the beginning of the session.

‘Overall today was a productive day for the team and we worked very well together to quickly complete our planned aero and mechanical evaluations. I was then able to get some good mileage under my belt to understand the characteristics of the car and how to get the most out of this new style of power unit.’

It was also a big day for McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.

The 22-year-old Belgian driver completed 136 laps, a huge amount of experience and gaining his Formula One Super License in the process.

‘This has been a fantastic day for me: my first experience in a Formula One car, and a really great opportunity to get plenty of laps under my belt,’

‘I want to say a big thank you to the team. It’s also great to have been able to contribute to the test programme: 136 laps today was a fantastic achievement, and it’s great that it’s earned me my F1 Super Licence.’

Unofficial Wednesday times from Barcelona

1. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.871s, 102 laps

2. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1m 25.805, 102 laps

3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 26.480, 94 laps

4. Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber, 1m 26.972s, 85 laps

5. Susie Wolff, Williams, 1m 27.280s, 55 laps

6. Jules Bianchi, Marussia, 1m 27.718s, 55 laps

7. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 1m 27.973s, 73 laps

8. Daniel Juncadella, Force India, 1m 28.278s, 91 laps

9. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1m 28.441s, 136 laps

10. Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1m 28.910s, 21 laps