Barcelona II, day 2: Vergne fastest at lunch

As the F1 fraternity arrived at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya for the second day of testing, fog played havoc with proceedings forcing the session to be delayed by 30 minutes. As the teams’ waited patiently for the all clear to get testing, McLaren used the time wisely, completing practice pit-stops in the foggy pit lane.

As the session started, the drivers’ were limited to only completing installation laps as the last of the fog cleared. Kamui Kobayashi was first out for Sauber, followed by local hero Fernando Alonso. The session was stopped again before any times were set, as the Williams of Pastor Maldonado ground to a halt at Turn 5. This was due to a very light fuel run by the Venezuelan, although nothing was confirmed by the team.

When the session was restarted, timed laps began to be set. The first driver to do so was the Caterham of Heikki Kovalainen with a 01:32.074, the Finn returning to testing after picking up food poisoning the day before.

Fernando Alonso then gave the Spanish fans something to cheer about, as he went top with a 01:25.324. The Spaniard went even quicker afterwards, with a 01:23.990 on the Pirelli soft compound, as Ferrari try their hardest to prepare for the season ahead.

Ferrari’s time at the top was short-lived, as the Lotus of Romain Grosjean crossed the line and shot to the top with a 01:23.782 on the hard Pirelli compounds, ending an impressive lap by the Frenchman who seems to be getting more and more accustomed with his return to the sport.

With the session off to a relatively slow start in comparison to other test days, Michael Schumacher stopped proceedings with the third red flag period. The 7-time World Champion’s Mercedes ground to a halt at Turn 7.

Fernando Alonso made the most of the restart, shooting to the top of timing sheets with a 01:23.447, which went unbeaten for a while as a further two red flag periods were caused. The first of the two was due to debris as a polystyrene marker board had been shattered, and the second was once again caused by Michael Schumacher. The German embedded himself in the gravel, causing further delays to Mercedes test programme.

As the morning session slowly progressed, many teams stuck to completing shorter runs, with the predicated plan being longer runs in the afternoon. Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne went top with only half an hour remaining, completing a quick one-lap Qualifying style run for Toro Rosso on the soft Pirelli compound. The time was a 01:23.126, and was a tenth faster than Grosjean’s quickest lap yesterday.

The session ended with two further red flag periods, ending a morning session plagued with seven delays in total. The first was caused by pacesetter Vergne, who’s Toro Rosso stopped Turn 7. The final red flag was caused by reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who reportedly caused the stop due to a dry-fuel run.

This final red flag concluded the morning period, as the checkered flag was thrown early after Vettel’s stop. The teams will be hoping that the afternoon session isn’t plagued by the same number of red flag delays, as the teams switch their focus to longer race simulations.

The session time has been extended by 30 minutes due to the fog delay at the start of the morning, which means todays testing will finish at 17:30 CET, 16:30 GMT.

Times at 1pm CET: