Barcelona I, day 2: Hulkenberg paces day 2 in Barcelona

This morning’s flying laps were good enough to keep Nico Hulkenberg and his Force India VJM05 at the top of the time sheets as Day 2 Testing at the Circuit de Catalunya came to an end.

As seems to be the pattern now, this afternoon’s session was used by the teams for long run testing and race simulation, meaning there were very few changes to the lap times or running order on the time sheets compared to this morning. The result was that Nico Hulkenberg would retain his place at the top of the time sheets with his quickest lap time of 1:22.608 which was set on the super soft Pirelli tyre compound.

Sergio Perez’s Sauber had another strong afternoon, staying in second place and completing a total of 85 laps, a total the team felt was enough for the day. Sebastian Vettel’s RB8 would also stay in third position, with a time unchanged from the morning.

However, Red Bull Racing impressed this afternoon by running a full race simulation. Sebastian Vettel completed a full 67 lap stint, the equivalent to an entire Grand Prix Race at Catalunya, with only a few pit stop simulations to break his run down a little. The RB8 proved reliable, with no reported problems or concern from the team at the end of the day. Vettel also broke the 100 lap barrier, finishing the day with 104 laps to his name.

Fernando Alonso was one of the rare time sheet changes this afternoon. With 30 minutes left of the day’s test session, Alonso had a set of super-softs put back on his Ferrari F2012 and the personal best time of 1:23.180 saw Alonso jump above the STR of Daniel Ricciardo and into fourth place to finish the day. Alonso would only achieve 87 laps in total today though, falling many laps short of the 100 laps Fernando said the team were aiming for each day, for the second day in a row.

Ricciardo, whose time did not change from this morning, experienced more setbacks in his STR7 when once again, his car stopped on track early in the afternoon session. The car would then remain in the team garage for much of the afternoon, appearing only briefly for a couple of laps with five minutes left in the day. The team would not release details on the STR7’s problems.

Lewis Hamilton’s lap time would also remain unchanged from the morning, as like Red Bull, the McLaren team opted to run race simulation and long runs for the afternoon. Hamilton would also finish day 2 with the highest number of laps than anyone else – 120 in total; almost the equivalent of two full grand prix at Catalunya.

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel did treat the gathered crowds to some light entertainment at one point when both were running race simulations at the same time on the track. Seperated by less than a second, Vettel would spend numerous laps stuck behind the MP4-27 of Lewis Hamilton, before finally roaring past in true race style.

Nico Rosberg, Valtteri Bottas, Vitaly Petrov and Charles Pic would also remain in the same positions on the time sheets as Day 2 came to a close, however, Bottas was able ti improve his personal lap time to 1:25.738 and Charles Pic got to within 5 seconds of Nico Hulkenberg, improving his personal best lap time to 1:27.343 before the day was out. Again though, Pic is still driving the 2011 challenger, the MVR-02.

Bottas and Pic were also able to break the 100 lap barrier today, with Bottas achieving 117 (the second highest number today achieved by all drivers) whilst Pic managed 108. This was the second day running that Pic would complete more than 100 laps over a single day.

Having had a successful morning and achieving 82 laps over the course of the day, Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes W03 disappeared into the team garage with over two hours remaining in the day. It soon became apparent that his car had some sort of undisclosed problem, though the team made no official statement on the matter. Rumour in the paddock was that the car was suffering from an oil leak that put the car out of action. Whatever the problem though, Nico Rosberg would not reappear on track for the rest of the day. The team are expected to take part again when testing commences tomorrow morning.

Day 2 final times and total lap numbers can be seen below. Day 3 starts tomorrow at 09:00 CET.

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