Red Bull Ring, Day 2: Rosberg heads final day of final in-season F1 test of 2015

Nico Rosberg set the quickest time of the final day of Formula One’s final in-season test, finishing eight tenths of a second ahead of Ferrari test driver Esteban Gutierrez at the Red Bull Ring. Williams race driver Valtteri Bottas was third just under a tenth of a second further back.

After rain had disrupted much of the first day of testing at the Austrian circuit, leading to Tuesday’s running to be extended by two hours, the final day saw better conditions and a largely trouble-free session for the drivers on duty.

Bottas set the early pace, with the Finn topping the timesheets as the lunch break arrived. His best time of the first part of the session was a 1:10.495 set on supersofts.

When the running resumed Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo was a notable absentee and the Australian remained in the garage until just after an hour into the afternoon, though the team later said morning aero work had given way to planned changes that delayed their re-entry to the session.

Ricciardo eventually put in 116 laps though this included a stoppage 45 mins from the end of the session when he halted at the end of the pit lane with a brake pedal issues that caused overheating a small fire. He managed to return to the fray for a final run in the closing minutes of the session.

Bottas’ benchmark was quickly erased in the early afternoon, with Rosberg setting a best time of 1:09.113 that kept him in P1 until the end of the session. The Austrian Grand Prix-winner managed to get through 110 laps as he kept Mercedes at the top of the timesheet for the second day running.

Gutierrez got through the same number of laps on his way to second place, with lap of 1:09.931, set relatively late in the afternoon.

With Bottas third, fourth place went to F1 debutant Marco Wittmann, who was at the wheel for Toro Rosso. The DTM champion put in an impressive performance to log a time of 1:10.103 and completed the day’s largest lap total, with 158 tours of the Red Bull Ring.

Fifth was Pascal Wehrlein. The German claimed top spot yesterday but today moved from Mercedes to Force India for whom he recorded a best lap of 1:10.253. Jolyon Palmer was sixth for Lotus. Fernando Alonso put in 104 laps for McLaren-Honda, taking over at the wheel of the MP4-30 from Stoffel Vandoorne. Felipe Nasr was last on the timesheet but the Brazilian got through 138 laps for Sauber.