Button on top on day 2 in Jerez

Two days into the first pre-season test of the 2014 Formula 1 season, and the teams are starting to demonstrate what exactly their new challengers are capable of for the season ahead.

Despite an ‘unplanned’ wet morning in Jerez as the rain continued to fall from yesterday afternoon, McLaren were finally able to get Jenson Button and his new MP4-29 out on track today after spending the entire first day of testing in the garage due to an electrical fault.

Button quickly made up for lost ground, putting the McLaren fastest in the mornings’ session, ahead of Bottas’ Williams and Raikkonen’s Ferrari.

Regardless of the fact that the track saw more action this morning than on the first day of testing, times continue to mean nothing as teams focused their efforts on reliability, and not yet on pure speed on track. No team is yet to complete a race simulation either.

However, Pirelli took advantage of the rain that fell overnight and changed their ‘wet tyre testing’ day from Friday to Wednesday morning. Although the water tanker fixed with sprinklers delayed the start of the morning session to flood the track, the track conditions were then wet enough for Pirelli to test their 2014 wet weather compound.

In the wet conditions, all present teams took advantage of the testing time with exception of Caterham and Toro Rosso, who opted to remain in their garages. In the latter half of the morning and as the track dried, Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez changed to slick tyres but quickly ended up in the gravel trap of Turn 5, causing the one and only red flag of the morning. The car did not hit the barriers and the recovered car looked relatively undamaged. Despite the ‘off’ for Gutierrez, Sauber’s morning was a success as the team completed a total of 33 laps; the highest of the seven teams who took to the track for the morning session.

Nico Rosberg was behind the wheel of the Mercedes W05 today, which did not make it onto the track until approximately 11:30 due to fixing the damage caused by Lewis Hamilton’s crash at Turn 1 yesterday. Rosberg completed just three installation laps before returning to the pit lane for the scheduled lunch hour. Sebastian Vettel added just five laps to his car in the morning session.

Toro Rosso and Caterham remained in their garages until the afternoon session began. Caterham’s Magnus Ericcson was quick to get back out for the team after lunch was over though, leaving just Toro Rosso to take to the track almost an hour into the afternoon session.

Sebastian Vettel’s day in the Red Bull RB10 would be cut short however, as the team cited an energy store issue on the car. Vettel has now completed just eleven laps over the course of two days in Jerez, marking the end of his testing in Spain. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo will take over at the wheel of the RB10 for the final two days’ testing at Jerez.

As the day moved into the final hours of testing, Red Bull Racing sister team Toro Rosso also cut their days’ testing short with an Energy Recovery System issue. The issue has kept the team off-track for the entire second day.

The lack of running in the Red Bull and Toro also adds to growing concern for Renault Sport who power both teams, as well as Caterham F1 team. Compared to competitor suppliers of Mercedes and Ferrari, Renault Sport has had limited mileage and on-track running time.

The afternoon session also saw Felipe Massa make his debut behind the wheel of the Williams FW36. Teammate Valtteri Bottas drove throughout the morning session, posting a fastest lap of 1:26.322 with 26 laps to his name. Thus far, Williams are yet to encounter any problems which have forced them to stop on track.

Force India’s Sergio Perez and Caterham’s rookie driver Magnus Ericcson were the cause of two red flag stoppages to this afternoons’ session. Sergio Perez stopped his Force India at Turn 1 with smoke coming out of the rear of the car, whilst Ericcson stopped his Caterham on track with what could be another Renault power issue, though the team are yet to officially confirm the problem Ericcson encountered. Caterham would not return to the track following the breakdown, adding to the list of Renault powered cars who were forced to end the second day of testing early.

Meanwhile, the afternoon was dominating by the on track activities of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, McLaren’s Jenson Button, Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.

Jenson Button, making up for yesterdays’ lost track time in the McLaren, continued to dominate the time sheets, finishing the day how he started and holding on to the fastest lap of day 2. Mercedes and Nico Rosberg completed a whopping 97 laps over the course of the day – more than laps than the total of all the cars laps combined on day one.

Williams driver Bottas finished the day just before the chequered flag fell, adding 35 laps to his tally in the car. He finished the day with a fastest lap of 1:25.344, over a second down on the fastest lap of Jenson Button’s McLaren.

Caterham made an attempt to get Magnus Ericcson back on track before the clock ran out on the day, but were unable to make it in time, once again limiting theirs, and Renault Sports, track time and mileage. As the chequered flag fell on Day 2, Mercedes powered cars had completed a combined 212 laps, Ferrari power with 100 laps, whilst Renault power had just 19 laps. They will be looking to make up a serious amount of ground over the next two days.

At the close of play on day 2 in Jerez, it was Jenson Button on top of the time sheets with the fastest lap, whist Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg completed the highest number of laps; three short of breaking into triple figures.

Day 2 laps and times are as follows:

Day 3 of the Formula 1 pre-season test in Jerez commences tomorrow, January 30th 2014.