Posted on 25th February 2016
At the final day of the first pre-season F1 test of the 2016 season, Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen was quickest ahead of Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat and Force India development driver Alfonso Celis as the McLaren team registered just three laps worth of running
The focus on the final day of testing was McLaren’s lack of activity after three installation laps. Fernando Alonso was the first man out of the garage in the morning, with the team clearly keen to make up for Wednesday’s lost running. However, a coolant leak was soon detected and it was severe enough to prevent Alonso from ever returning to the circuit which is a massive blow for the team with just four days of testing remaining until Melbourne.
But it was Kimi Raikkonen who was quickest with a lap time of 1:23.477 on Pirelli’s new ultra-soft tyre put Ferrari top of the standings, even though Raikkonen spent much of the afternoon in the garage which does suggest that he could have finished the day with more than his 79 laps.
Daniil Kvyat finished in second place with an ultra-soft run of his own and finished eight tenths behind Raikkonen and ending the day with a healthy 95 laps to his name. Force India’s development driver Alfonso Celis ended his second day in the car in third place after posting a time on the super-soft tyre at the end of a 75-lap day with the VJM09.
Kevin Magnussen continued Renault’s recovery from its troubles on Monday and Tuesday and finished in fourth place. But Magnussen's day ended with a stoppage in the final 15 minutes at the exit of Turn 3. Max Verstappen continued the Toro Rosso team’s healthy mileage collection this week with 110 laps and ending the day in fifth place.
Felipe Nasr also had a productive day with the Sauber who finished in sixth place and accumulating 119 laps in the team’s 2015-spec car to give it plenty of comparative data for the launch of this season’s car next week.
World champions Mercedes split the day between its drivers for the second day in a row with Nico Rosberg finishing ahead of his team mate in seventh place while Lewis Hamilton finished in eighth place and fell one lap short of a century in the morning, while Nico Rosberg added 86 overall, helping the world champions on to 671 laps— past 3,000km — for the first four days. The team spent much of the day trialling its radical new nose design, which includes an S-duct.
Felipe Massa had another stop-start day and completed just 53 laps for Williams and finished in ninth place. However, newcomers Haas executed a race simulation with Esteban Gutierrez who finished in tenth place as he surpassed the team’s previous best lap tally and completed a race simulation.
The only blemish was a late stoppage for the Mexican driver caused by an electrical issue in the final hour but it should not dampen what has been an encouraging start to the team’s life in F1. Manor rookie Rio Haryanto ticked off 51 laps on his second day with the MR05 finished with a spin into the wall at Turn 4 in the afternoon and finished in eleventh place.
Here's the official classification from Day Four of the pre-season test as follows:-
Day Four Timesheet:-
1. Kimi Raikkonen – Ferrari – 1:23.477 – 80 laps
2. Daniil Kvyat – Red Bull – 1:24.293 – 96 laps
3. Alfonso Celis – Force India – 1:24.840- 75 laps
4. Kevin Magnussen – Renault – 1:25.263 – 153 laps
5. Max Verstappen – Toro Rosso – 1:25.393 – 110 laps
6. Felipe Nasr – Sauber – 1:26.053 – 121 laps
7. Nico Rosberg – Mercedes – 1:26.187 – 86 laps (afternoon)
8. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:26.295 – 99 laps (morning)
9. Felipe Massa – Williams – 1:26.483 – 54 laps
10. Esteban Gutierrez – Haas – 1:27.802 – 89 laps
11. Rio Haryanto – Manor – 1:28.266 – 51 laps
12. Fernando Alonso – McLaren – No time – 3 laps
Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa
