Only eight drivers completed laps on the first day of the final winter test session in Barcelona.
The new Force India VJM08 has arrived in Barcelona, but was not scheduled to run on Thursday. Instead the team are aiming for an outing on Friday afternoon with Nico Hulkenberg scheduled to complete the first laps in the new car.
It wasn’t the best day for Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton completing just 48 laps. Hamilton had shown good early pace in the morning but a a failure of the MGU-K ended their day early.
It continued to be a frustrating time for McLaren Honda and Jenson Button.
A hydraulic leak limited McLaren to just 7 laps and a time that was virtually 8 seconds off the pace.
That pace was set by Felipe Massa in the Williams. The Brazilian completed 103 laps and set the fastest time of the day using Pirelli’s soft-compound tyre.
?It was a good day for us and the car behaved well, The FW37 never showed a sign of an issue and this has been the case since we arrived at the first test in Jerez. We are doing a lot of work and seem to be moving forward.? Massa told formula1.com after the session.
Another team that would have been pleased with their running was Marcus Ericsson who completed 122 laps for Sauber setting the second fastest time of the day.
?It was a productive day, and for me the best one of the pre-season so far, The morning went well until the rain came, which forced us to slightly change our plans. In the afternoon we planned a full race simulation, which was a very good exercise for the team to get valuable data. Also for me it was important to get a feeling for the 2015 tyres over a race distance with different fuel loads.? said Ericsson.
Unofficial Thursday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.500s, 103 laps
2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 24.276s, 122 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 24.881s, 48 laps
4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 25.947s, 75 laps
5. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 26.177s, 75 laps
6. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 26.327s, 80 laps
7. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 26.962s, 86 laps
8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 31.479s, 7 laps
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