Nico Rosberg is two seconds quicker than the rest of the field at the first in-season test of 2015 at Barcelona

Nico Rosberg is two seconds quicker than the rest of the field at the first in-season test of 2015 at Barcelona

Yesterday at the first in-season test at the Circuit de Catalunyam Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg continued his unrivalled run by leading the way as Formula 1’s first 2015 in-season test opened.

Over the course of the recent race weekend in Barcelona; Rosberg was quickest in practice ahead of grabbing the pole position that provided the platform for the ninth win of his F1 career.

Straight away from the start of Tuesday's session; Rosberg topped the times in his Mercedes and never lost the lead with the best of his mammoth 146 laps set in the morning session.

With Mercedes one of the four teams helping tyre manufacturer Pirelli test new rubber over the course of the two days (the other teams being Ferrari, Red Bull and Toro Rosso); Rosberg’s leading time of 1.24.374s came via an unmarked compound.

His laptime was 0.307 seconds quicker than his pole position time on Saturday, albeit 1.6s slower than his leading lap over the eight days of pre-season testing conducted at the track. On that occasion however, Rosberg did bolt on a set of soft tyres for that run, while medium and hard were used throughout the race weekend.

Rosberg finished 2.250s clear of Marcus Ericsson in his Sauber-Ferrari in second place, with Ferrari Academy driver Raffaele Marciello next up for the Ferrari team just 0.024s behind the Swedish driver in third place.

Marciello, who replaces Ericsson at Sauber on the final day of the test session on Wednesday; finished the day with the third highest number of laps behind Rosberg and Pierre Gasly on 125 laps.

Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat finished the session in fourth place ahead of Lotus driver Pastor Maldonado. But on his F1 debut, Nick Yelloly finished in sixth place and completed over 100 laps for Force India. This was a day ahead of schedule as the 24-year-old stepped in late on for Mercedes reserve Pascal Wehrlein who was forced to pull out through illness and the Mercedes team are hopeful Wehrlein will be fit enough to step in for Rosberg on Wednesday.

Another driver on his F1 debut was GP2 driver and Red Bull Young Driver Pierre Gasly who finished in seventh place and wracked up a staggering 131 laps on his way to finishing seventh quickest for Toro Rosso; although he stopped on track after the chequered flag had fallen.

Williams’s Felipe Massa only managed 54 laps and finished in eighth place ahead of McLaren Test driver with McLaren tester Oliver Turvey bringing up the rear who was 4.1s down on the pace of Rosberg.

During the session, the McLaren team tested a raft of new parts, to such an extent Turvey took a long lunch break of two hours such was the work required on the car from the way it ran in the morning compared to the afternoon.

However, I should mention that all the teams were testing a variety of new components and aerodynamic parts given the different nature of the next two races in Monaco and Canada.

Day One Timesheet:-

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:24.374, 146 laps;

2. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari, 1:26.624, 98 laps;

3. Raffaele Marciello, Ferrari, 1:26.648, 125 laps;

4. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull-Renault, 1:26.904, 101 laps;

5. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus-Mercedes, 1:27.338, 60 laps;

6. Nick Yelloly, Force India-Mercedes, 1:27.396, 109 laps;

7. Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso, 1:27.639, 131 laps;

8. Felipe Massa, Williams-Mercedes, 1:27.911, 54 laps;

9. Oliver Turvey, McLaren-Honda, 1:28.542, 68 laps.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa