McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton finished his first days testing in the new MP4-26 in fifth, just over a second off Felipe Massa’s quickest time.
Thursday was the teams first opportunity to lap at speed, although they remained cautious about pushing the car, opting to instead focus on reliability checks.
“In the morning, we focused on short runs to enable Lewis and the engineers to run through a number of systems checks and make small set-up and tyre-compound changes in order to gauge the car’s reaction to adjustments,” read the teams testing notes.
“At lunchtime, the car was routinely stripped for a more thorough check of the new systems, returning to the track for the final hour’s running.”
The Woking based outfit chose not to run the adjustable rear-wing during the test, but they did experiment with KERS during the afternoon’s running.
“While the day’s programme ran as planned without the engagement of the drag reduction system, the latter part of the day saw us running our new hybrid system for the first time.
“Lewis completed 58 laps without problem and the team declared itself satisfied with the first day.”
The 2008 world champion declared himself satisfied with the new car as well.
“Today was mainly about checking the car – not the most exciting day, but it was important to make sure everything was running okay.
“We didn’t do any particularly long runs, and I wasn’t too aggressive with the car, but we learned a couple of useful things. The car feels good compared to last year’s, which is positive. It feels like a good step over the MP4-25.”
Jenson Button will takeover driving duties on Friday.
