Pascal Wehrelin tops the timesheets on the final day of the Abu Dhabi test

Pascal Wehrelin tops the timesheets on the final day of the Abu Dhabi test

Mercedes’ reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein topped the timesheets on the final day of Abu Dhabi’s post-season test ahead of Ferrari Academy driver Raffele Marciello in second place and Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen in third place.

Once again, McLaren struggled to cover any significant mileage with its new Honda power unit as it struggled to identify an electrical gremlin for the entire morning. It eventually broke cover at 16:30pm and completed one lap under its own power before a second attempt only made it as far as the second sector.

McLaren Racing Director Eric Boullier has insisted to the media that McLaren were treating any track time as a bonus this week in the Abu Dhabi test as it looks to the long winter break to solve its issues before hitting the track again in February in Jerez.

Behind the wheel of the all-conquering W05-Hybrid, Wehrlein clocked a 1:44.050 to leave the Mercedes team in the position it has become accustomed to for the majority of year. The 20-year-old German drives for Mercedes in DTM currently and joined the team as its reserve in September. His lap came late in the day and was 0.584s faster than his nearest rival.

GP2 driver Raffele Marciello was second fastest in the Ferrari as he took over testing duties from Kimi Raikkonen. As we all know, Marciello is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and completed a total of 86 laps in his first outing in a current F1 car, setting a 1:43.208 in his final few laps to jump ahead of Max Verstappen in third place.

After a suspension failure caused him to crash on Tuesday, Verstappen completed 78 laps in the Toro Rosso on Wednesday to help prepare him ahead of his first full season in F1 at the age of 17 in 2015.

Marcus Ericsson topped off his two days of testing with his new Sauber team with the fourth fastest time.

After completing over 100 laps of running in today's session, the ex-Caterham driver set about chasing lap times at the end of the session and clocked a 1:44.551 in the final five minutes of the day.

Caterham brought its 2014 season and possibly its time in Formula One to a close with the fifth fastest time. The team’s one-off Abu Dhabi GP race driver, Will Stevens, completed his second day at the wheel by finishing the session in fifth place and added 76 laps of valuable F1 experience to his CV before the car came to a halt in the afternoon.

F3 driver Spike Goddard made his F1 debut in the Force India and completed 87 laps with a best time of 1:44.944 that put him in sixth place ahead of race regular Daniel Ricciardo who completed 88 laps in the familiar surroundings of his Red Bull who ended the session in seventh place.

His day came to an early end when the car caught fire with around two hours remaining, but Ricciardo was soon back in the garage laughing and joking with his mechanics.

Felipe Nasr signed off his last day as a Williams reserve driver with 83 laps and a best time of 1:45.151and finished the session in eighth place before he moves to Sauber next year as a race driver.

GP3 champion Alex Lynn completed an afternoon in the Lotus with 52 laps and ended his session in ninth place after being handed the car by F3 champion Esteban Ocon, who completed 34 laps in the morning and ended the session in tenth place ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne who ended the session in eleventh place and did not set a time

Day Two Timesheets:-

1.Pascal Wehrlien, Mercedes 96 laps 1:42.624
2.Raffaele Marciello, Ferrari 90 laps 1:43.208
3.Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso 78 laps 1:43.763
4.Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari 112 laps 1:44.551
5.Will Stevens, Caterham-Renault 36 laps 1:44.888
6.Spike Goddard, Force India-Mercedes 89 laps 1:44.944
7.Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull-Renault 101 laps 1:45.151
8.Felipe Nasr, Williams-Mercedes 95 laps 1:45.937
9.Alex Lynn, Lotus 52 laps 1:46.168
10.Esteban Ocon, Lotus 34 laps 1.47.013
11.Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Mercedes 2 laps No Time

Sarah Jones