Massa and Williams on top for final test in Jerez

Williams’ newest recruit Felipe Massa has ended the fourth and final day of testing in Jerez at the top of the timesheets ahead of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Massa completed a sound test of 86 laps today, whilst Ferrari topped the mileage charts with an impressive 115 laps completed by hometown favourite Fernando Alonso. McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, who topped Thursdays’ timesheet, finished with 110 laps on his tally, but brought the days’ test to any early end when his crash caused a prolonged red flag.

Mercedes opened the final day of testing by demonstrating once more the reliability of their new challenger, the Mercedes AMG F1 W05. Testing in damp to wet conditions, Mercedes completed an impressive 91 lap stint over the first three and half hours of the day.

Nico Rosberg was tasked with completing a marathon race simulation, broken up only by race-like stops in the pit lane for new tyres and minor adjustments.

Mercedes impressive testing can only add to the pressure being felt at Red Bull Racing, who struggled with testing once more on the final day of the four day run in Jerez. The RB10 showed signs of cooling issues when the paintwork of the car started to bubble on track. Ricciardo managed to add just seven laps to the 14 already completing by the team between days 1 and 3. With a total o f just 21 laps completed over four days, Red Bull confirmed after lunch that the team were packing up and heading back to Milton Keynes in attempt to rectify all issues before the second test in Bahrain starts on February 19th 2014.

Team Principal Christian Horner admitted to the media; “It’s been a very difficult test,”
“We have had numerous Renault issues as well as chassis cooling issues, which have affected our progress. However, despite the lack of mileage, what we have managed to learn shows that the problems should be solvable for the next test in Bahrain. Part of the purpose of this early test was to learn about any issues ahead of the start of the season and there will now be a lot of focus on the dyno over the next few weeks.”

The mornings’ session saw dark and damp conditions, and the intermediate Pirelli compound was the tyre of choice when, for the first time in all four days, all cars had ventured onto the track within the first two hours, even if it was for just one installation lap.

As the track dried over the course of the morning, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso set the fastest lap of the morning with just 30 minutes left before the allotted 13:00 lunch break; the time was 1:35.344. Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was second fastest but the team was focusing on race simulation and not fast laps. Williams’ Felipe Massa was fourth fastest with 34 laps under his belt.

Force India’s newest reserve driver Daniel Juncadella got his first test of life as a reserve driver, completing an impressive 32 laps behind the wheel of the VJM07, whilst Renault powered Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi put the car through 45 laps.

Toro Rosso’s new recruit Daniil Kvyat, who sat in the garage all afternoon on Wednesday due to mechanical faults on the car, finally got some track time in the STR9 this morning, completing 7 laps and the seventh fastest time before Daniel Ricciardo took over behind the wheel before the 13:00 break.

Marussia, who testing their new car for the first time yesterday, completed 5 installation laps before returning to the garage for a long period of time, and Sauber’s Adrian Sutil completed a smaller race simulation of 43 laps before returning his C33 to the garage.

As the afternoon session got underway, the track was left for all present teams with the exception of Red Bull. Kamui Kobayashi continued to capitalise on his time in the new CT05 by roaring ot to start the afternoons session, followed shortly thereafter by the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa in the Williams.

Just 15 minutes into the afternoon session, and Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi had completed more mileage today then every Renault-powered team car managed across the first three days of testing. Renault Sport F1 will of course be grateful, and relieved to see some data and reliability starting to be demonstrated.

Marussia’s Jules Bianchi was using his first day at testing to get comfortable with his new car for the season ahead. By the close of play, Bianchi had a successful day of 25 laps with a sixth fastest lap time, well ahead of the times posted by Sutil, Rosberg, Kobayashi, Kvyat and Ricciardo. Despite some minor faults with the MR03 and a late arrival at Jerez, Marussia will head to Bahrain with an air of confidence in their challenger.

Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg completed 91 laps this morning before handing over the reins to teammate Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton made an attempt to complete a race simulation alongside Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, but their runs were shortened by the three red flag stoppages to the afternoon session. Hamilton ended the day with 41 laps in total and the fifth fastest time of the day.

The first red flag came when Adrian Sutil once again lost control of his Sauber C33 at the chicane, beaching the car in the gravel. Kevin Magnussen caused the second two stoppages; once at the same corner as Sutil, and then again with just over ten minutes left in the afternoon. Going into Turn 10, Magnussen hit the barrier causing damage to the front of the car. The stoppage was enough to run the clock out on the day, meaning there would be no more running from any of the teams in Jerez.

The rookie ended the day fourth fastest behind Massa, Alonso and Juncadella. Despite the crash, Magnussen and McLaren had a successful day on track, completing a hefty 110 laps in total.

Toro Rosso, who had another slow day, saw Kvyat complete just 9 laps whilst Red Bull’s Ricciardo finished the day at the bottom of the timesheets.

Day 4 laps and times are as follows:

The second of three pre-season tests commences February 19th 2014 in Bahrain.