Palmer heads time sheets on second day of Barcelona testing

On the second and final day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, a late run on a set of supersoft tyres allowed Lotus reserve driver Jolyon Palmer to top the timesheets ahead of Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein

Palmer deposed long-time leader of the session Pascal Wehrlein with 18 minutes of the day remaining, and finished just over four tenths of a second clear of the 20-year-old German with a laptime of 1.26.080s.

This was still 1.7 seconds adrift of the best lap over the two days at the Circuit de Catalunya, set by from Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix winner Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes W07 Hybrid on Tuesday.

Wehrlein performed creditably as he overcame illness to chalk up 137 laps which was the highest of the day and ended the session in second place despite still being ill. He was struck by a fever on Monday that left his entire body covered in pain and was confined to bed on doctors orders. This then forced him to miss his initial opportunity with Force India on Tuesday.

He was then attended to by Mercedes’ team doctor and with medicine to help him recover quickly, Wehrlein was given the all-clear to take over the wheel from Rosberg on Wednesday, although conceded to being far from 100 per cent back to its normal self.

Red Bull protégé and GP2 driver Pierre Gasly who turned 131 laps for the Toro Rosso team yesterday; switched to a Red Bull on Wednesday and completed a further 72, and finished the session in third place ahead of the McLaren-Honda of Jenson Button who finished in fourth place and managed to run 100 laps in the session after not having a great first day of the test.

Testing with Williams for the first time, development driver and GP2 title-contender Alex Lynn only managed 52 laps, but he was also within nine tenths of Palmer's lap time and finished in fifth place. The very talented Esteban Ocon who was called up by the Force India team for Wednesday's session after Nick Yelloly took up the seat from the ill Wehrlein on Tuesday ended the session in sixth place.

On his maiden outing for Ferrari as the teams' reserve driver (and his first run since the end of last year after being axed by Sauber), Esteban Gutierrez finished the session in seventh place and managed to put in 119 laps during the day. Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz was almost two seconds down in his Toro Rosso, but did achieve the second-highest number of laps which was 126 laps and he finished the session in eighth place.

Ferrari Academy driver Raffaele Marciello, who drove for the Ferrari team on Tuesday, switched to Sauber on Wednesday and endured an ignominious start. The Italian driver slid off at Turn 3 and into a tyre barrier early on and damaged the front-left of the car.

But he did manage to return to the circuit to run later on in the day and finished at the bottom of the timesheets in ninth place.

Day Two Timesheet:-

1. Joylon Palmer, Lotus, 1:26.080, 87 laps
2. Pascal Wehrlein, Mercedes, 1:26.497 137 laps
3. Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, 1:26.683, 75 laps
4. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:26.927, 100 laps
5. Alex Lynn, Williams, 1:26.967, 52 laps
6. Esteban Ocon, Force India, 1:27.520, 94 laps
7. Esteban Gutierrez, Ferrari, 1:27.930 119 laps
8. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:27.997, 126 laps
9. Raffaelle Marciello, Sauber, 1:28.829, 75 laps

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa