Valtteri Bottas tops the timesheets on first day of Abu Dhabi test

Valtteri Bottas tops the timesheets on first day of Abu Dhabi test

On Day 1 of the Abu Dhabi test today, Williams driver Valtteri Bottas topped the first day of post-race testing in Abu Dhabi as the headline act which was McLaren’s Honda-powered MP4-29H1×1 only completed just three laps.

The two-day test at Yas Marina looked more like the start of the 2015 season than it did the end of the 2014 campaign, as McLaren made its public debut with Honda, Sebastian Vettel visited his new team Ferrari and Pirelli offered 2015 tyres for the teams to try out.

McLaren’s first day of testing did not go to plan as the team spent the morning “triple checking” an electrical concern before hitting the track for the first time at 15:11pm. The interim car, which has been re-engineered to run the Honda power unit and its ancillaries did complete its installation lap under its own power but stopped on track during the first lap of its second run.

However, GP2 runner-up and McLaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne made it out for one final lap in the last hour of the session to bring the total for the day to three. The problems were reminiscent of those suffered by several teams during the early days of testing this season in Jerez and Bahrain.

Nevertheless despite the limited running, McLaren reported they have made ‘lots of progress’ from the first day of testing regardless.

Bottas’ fastest time of 1:43.396 which was set in the final 20 minutes of the session, means very little for this year or next and was over three seconds off the pace of Nico Rosberg’s qualifying lap for last weekend’s Abu Dhabi GP. It was however, enough to beat Kimi Raikkonen who finished in second place and was 0.492s behind the Williams driver as the Ferrari driver completed a day in the cockpit with future team-mate Vettel watching on from the pit wall.

New Ferrari driver Vettel had hoped to test for his new team this week, but his Red Bull contract stopped him from doing so. The German made the most of the opportunity to familiarise himself with his new colleagues, whilst also listening in on the radio as he prepares for his new life in 2015. Interestingly, Ferrari ran with temperature sensors on their front tyres for part of the day which could be perhaps partly due to Raikkonen’s season-long struggles with the car.

Nico Rosberg ended the session in third place while GP2 Champion Jolyon Palmer got his first experience of an F1 car, but his running was also limited by reliability issues but still managed to finish fourth in the session. What Force India described to the press as a “small engine issue” that limited his running in the morning then came up again as Palmer was again forced to stop on track in the afternoon due to “technical issues.”

Palmer did manage to produce some quick laps late in the day though, to leap up the timesheets finishing the day fourth quickest with a best time of 1:44.516 after completing a total of 37 laps in the session.
Red Bull driver Carlos Sainz Jr put in an impressive display for Red Bull as he stakes a claim for a Toro Rosso seat in 2015 by finishing the session in fifth place. The newly-crowned Formula Renault 3.5 Champion is thought to be under serious consideration to fill the void left by Daniil Kvyat's promotion to Red Bull and could gain the seat from current driver Jean-Eric Vergne who could also be retained by the team despite his contract being terminated a few months ago by the Toro Rosso team.

Will Stevens who got to race for Caterham on Sunday at Abu Dhabi with ex driver Marcus Ericsson cutting all ties to the team got more experience today in the car today by running over 100 laps in the test and finished the session in sixth place even though his future in the sport is still looking in doubt.

Lotus test driver Charles Pic finished the session in seventh place ahead of Sauber Marcus Ericsson made his debut for Sauber having severed his ties to Caterham ahead of the Abu Dhabi GP and finished the session in eighth place ahead of Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen who gained more valuable mileage ahead of his F1 debut in Australia next March. Verstappen's day wasn't without incident as the 17-year-old planted his STR9 in the barriers and the Dutchman finished the day in ninth place ahead of McLaren development driver Stoffel Vandoorne in tenth place.

Day One timesheet:-

1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams-Mercedes 80 laps 1:43.396
2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari 80 laps 1:43.888
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes 114 laps 1:44.512
4. Jolyon Palmer, Force India-Mercedes 19 laps 1:44.516
5. Carlos Sainz Jr, Red Bull-Renault 36 laps 1:45.339
6. Will Stevens, Caterham-Renault 99 laps 1:45.436
7. Charles Pic, Lotus-Renault 101 laps 1:46.167
8. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber-Ferrari 95 laps 1:46.253
9. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso-Renault 55 laps 1:47.194
10. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren-Honda 3 laps No time