Barcelona Test, Day 1: Vettel tops opening day of first in-season test

Two days after Max Verstappen became the youngest ever grand prix with victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, Formula One action resumed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel topping the timesheet as the first in-season test of 2016 got underway.

Vettel finished third in last weekend’s race but the German and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen lost out to Red Bull Racing driver Verstappen and today Ferrari sought to explore the reasons behind the defeat.

Across a busy day Vettel got through 103 laps as he replicated race and qualifying conditions from the weekend. His quickest lap of the day, a 1:23.220 set on soft tyres, came in the afternoon session, as he worked through a full qualifying session simulation. Following the Spanish Grand Prix, team boss Maurizio Arrivabene had isolated a lack of pace in the final sector as the chief reason behind Ferrari’s failure to win on Sunday and Vettel today set the fastest final sector of the day as the team addressed the issue.

Nico Rosberg, whose run of seven straight grand prix wins came to an end on Sunday in a lap one collision with team-mate Lewis Hamilton, was second fastest as he logged 119 laps. The German’s best time was also set on the soft tyre and at the end of the session he was 0.117s slower than Vettel.

Third place on the timesheet went to McLaren’s Jenson Button. The Briton set a time of 1:23.753 in the morning session, though the McLaren driver’s time came on the red-banded supersoft Pirelli tyre.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean moved even further down the Pirelli order as he opted to run the company’s new ultrasoft tyre for a late run that saw him claim fourth spot in the standings with a lap of 1:23.882. The ultrasoft will make its race weekend debut at the next event, the Monaco Grand Prix and the subsequent race, in Canada.

Grosjean has complained of extreme handling difficulties with his Haas in recent weeks ands he also took the chance to today test a new chassis.

With the French driver fourth, fifth place went to Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein. The German used the supersoft compound to set a time of 1:24.297, which was just 0.010s ahead of Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian spent much of the morning with an array of aero rakes fitted to his RB12 but last Sunday’s fourth-placed driver also got the chance to try an upgraded Renault power unit as he worked through 89 laps across the two sessions.

Ricciardo was followed in seventh place by Red Bull Junior programme driver Pierre Gasly who was on duty for Toro Rosso. The French youngster set a best time of 1:24.821 as he logged 78 laps. Alfonso Celis too P8 for Force India while Williams’ tester Alex Lynn debuted a radical rear wing on his way to ninth. Like Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon was testing the upgraded power unit in the works Renault and managed 105 laps.