Kimi Raikkonen ends the final day of testing in Jerez by setting the fastest lap time

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen ended the first Formula 1 test of 2015 on top for Ferrari, setting the fastest time of the week at Jerez on Wednesday afternoon.

Raikkonen spent most of the day at the top of the times, running on the medium and hard-compound tyres during the morning, before switching to some soft-tyre running late in the afternoon.

It was during a sequence of runs on the yellow-sidewalled Pirellis that Raikkonen set the best time of the four days with a lap time of 1.20.841 and went one tenth of a second faster than Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel managed on day two (on mediums).

Sauber once again got itself towards the front as it completed some soft-tyre running for the fourth consecutive day, with Marcus Ericsson finishing ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes for the second-fastest time with half an hour to go in the session. However, Ericsson caused a last-minute red flag when his car ran out of fuel on track.

Even though Hamilton finished the session behind Ericsson and Raikkonen, he succeeded in passing the 100-lap mark for the first time at this test after a water leak limited him to 91 laps on day two of the test. But the reigning world champion did not have a perfect day though, as a spin at the chicane brought out the red flags in the morning. But this was only a minor delay to Mercedes’ programme, with Hamilton returning to the track just 40 minutes after he caused the stoppage.

As we move further down the timesheets, Williams and Toro Rosso had good days with Felipe Massa finishing the session in fourth place and Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen finishing the session in sixth place and 97 laps of running under his belt. Things couldn’t be the same for Lotus and McLaren. Both teams wrapped up the test due to power unit and fuel pump problems respectively and finished the session in seventh and eighth places, while Red Bull lost time with an ERS problem earlier in the day that forced Daniil Kvyat to stop on the track in the morning.

McLaren had a troubled morning as well, when an “operational issue relating to the oil level” caused a delay to its programme in the morning. Nevertheless, Jenson Button finished the day with 35 laps to his name, and he set the Honda-powered MP4-30’s fastest lap of the week with a 1m27.660s.

Day Four Timesheet:-

1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:20.841, 106 laps

2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:22.019, 112 laps

3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:22.172, 117 laps

4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:22.553, 97 laps

5. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:23.116, 73 laps

6. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1:23.802, 53 laps

7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:23.975, 64 laps

8. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:27.660, 35 laps

Please keep following Driving for Pleasure for the latest news on Formula One and we will also be covering the final pre-season test sessions at Barcelona at the end of February.

Sarah Jones