McLaren forced to end day early with "loss of water cooling pressure"; Mercedes top mileage charts again but Rosberg stops on track; Red Bull suffer engine delays; Felipe Nasr sets pace from Raikkonen
Tuesday 3 February 2015 19:06, UK
McLaren’s progress with their complex new Honda-powered car represented a frustrating case of two steps forward and one back on Tuesday at Jerez, as little-fancied Sauber set the Day Three pace.
Having been on track for a meagre six laps with their MP4-30 during each of the opening two days of testing, McLaren received an early boost on the third day when they were among the first to take to the track, an early start which provided the platform for them to more than double their mileage count.
However, the positives – a total of 32 laps including a single stint which ran to 11 – combined with more negatives as the team missed the afternoon’s running when a loss of cooling water pressure in the Honda power unit resulted in the system having to be removed for inspection. McLaren's mechanics are replacing the parts so they can resume testing on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, despite losing yet more track time on his second and final day in the car at Jerez, Alonso hailed it as a “big step forward” for McLaren. The team, however, remain rooted to the bottom of the winter mileage charts with one day of the first test to go.
Conversely, Day Three saw the majority of teams complete their most laps in a single day with their 2015 cars yet. While Mercedes once again comfortably led the way – Nico Rosberg adding 151 laps to his record Day One tally of 157 despite losing an hour in the middle of the day when his W06’s engine shut itself down – Sauber, Ferrari, Lotus and Toro Rosso all racked up more than 90 laps apiece too.
On the timesheet it was Sauber who unexpetedly claimed the day three bragging rights with new signing Felipe Nasr, the Swiss outfit taking over from their engine suppliers Ferrari in setting the pace after Sebastian Vettel had led the way on the opening two days.
In addition to the usual caveats that accompany F1 testing, Nasr was one of the few drivers to use the soft tyres and therefore his 1:21.545 time is not truly comparable to those of second-fastest Kimi Raikkonen (1:21.750) and third-quickest Rosberg (1:21.982).
Still, after a wretched and point-less 2014, Sauber can rightly be more encouraged by their start to the new campaign.
A damp start had forced drivers to run on intermediate tyres for most of the morning, but the eventual drying conditions produced an action-packed period at the head of the timesheet as the top three regularly traded fastest times in the middle of the day.
Like McLaren, Red Bull were absent from this fight with Daniel Ricciardo marooned on five laps for several hours while the team changed his Renault power unit. However, the Australian did go on to complete more than 40 laps in the RB11 – although he couldn't break away from towards the foot of the timesheet.
Red Bull have run into problems on all three days with their 2015 challenger, but Ricciardo says the team managed to learn some useful lessons on Day Three.
"It's too early. I'd like to know a bit more but we've done limited running today. The last hour was a bit better - we got some more long runs done. That's something in testing where you get to know the car a bit better and feel how it uses the tyres," he said.
"I don't know about the pace, it's still hard with fuel loads and everything, but the consistency of at least putting a few laps together was not too bad in the end. So a few positives to take away from today."
Felipe Massa’s maiden outing in the Williams FW37 resulted in the Brazilian finishing fourth on the timesheets, ahead of Lotus’s Pastor Maldonado who impressively nearly reached a century of laps with the team’s new Mercedes power plant - although the E23 did stop on track right at the end of the session.
Jerez Day Three timesheet
1. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:21.545, 108 laps
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:21.750, 92 laps
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:21.982 151 laps
4. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:22.276, 71 laps
5. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:22.713, 96 laps
6. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:23.187, 136 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:23.901, 48 laps
8. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 1:35.553, 32 laps.
The Sky Sports F1 Online team will be providing live commentary from all four days of testing in Jerez – from dawn on Sunday to dusk on Wednesday. Sky Sports News HQ will also have live updates from trackside
