Sebastian Vettel made his test debut for Ferrari on Sunday and finished the day at the top of the timing screens thanks to a low-fuel run in the afternoon.
The German spent much of the afternoon stuck in the garage thanks to a telemetry problem, but managed to get out in the last couple of hours to complete some shorter runs and eventually claim the top spot.
He was a tenth quicker than Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who enjoyed an early morning spin which brought out a brief red flag.
However it was Nico Rosberg who impressed most. Whilst he finished third in the Mercedes W06, he topped the times for much of the morning before switching focus to longer runs, allowing him to clock up 157 laps – which is unheard of on the first day of testing.
Fifth-placed Valtteri Bottas racked up the second highest lap tally with 73, less than half Rosberg’s total, as he came in behind Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Fernando Alonso made his second McLaren debut on Sunday, but his day was spent running through system checks. The Spaniard completed just six laps.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
| 01. | S. Vettel | Ferrari | 1:22.602 | 60 | |
| 02. | M. Ericsson | Sauber | 1:22.777 | 0.157 | 73 |
| 03. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:23.106 | 0.486 | 157 |
| 04. | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:23.338 | 0.718 | 35 |
| 05. | V. Bottas | Williams | 1:23.906 | 1.286 | 73 |
| 06. | C. Sainz Jr | Toro Rosso | 1:25.327 | 2.707 | 46 |
| 07. | F. Alonso | McLaren | 1:40.738 | 18.118 | 6 |
Discussion about this post