Mexican Sergio Perez Thursday set the fastest time of the first day of the last winter test session in Bahrain.
Driving the Mercedes-powered Sahara Force India VJM07, Perez set a 1m36.290, almost a full second quicker than the second place Valtteri Bottas.
"We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it,” said Perez.
“We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different compounds and mappings, and it's been a fantastic day in terms of learning about the car. Tomorrow is my last day in the car before the season starts so hopefully we can have another solid day to be in good shape for Melbourne.”
Finland’ Valtteri Bottas finished the day in second place with a time of 1m36.184 in the Williams-Mercedes.
The day started by testing some aero components, all of which correlated well with what the team expected from the wind tunnel. Williams did a race simulation this afternoon including laps to the grid and everything that goes into a race and that also went well.
Kimi Raikkonen was third in the Ferrari F14 T. This morning’s work soon got delayed, because of a problem on the car that took some time to fix before the lunch break. Once back on track in the afternoon, Raikkonen managed to run regularly, alternating between aero measurements and a series of set-up tests over short runs.
Fourth was Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes AMG W05. Technical problems brought running to an end one hour earlier than planned for the German team.
Adrian Sutil ranked fifth in the Ferrari-powered Sauber. The Swiss team performed front wing and suspension work. Then, the team went on to do low fuel qualifying runs until early afternoon, before switching to high fuel race simulations.
McLaren rookie driver Kevin Magnussen ran short runs in the morning before the team ran a full race distance in the afternoon.
Daniel Ricciardo was 7th for Red Bull Racing, beating Max Chilton in the Marussia, Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso, Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus and Kamui Kobayashi in the Caterham.
It is interesting to note that the three of the top four cars are powered by Mercedes power units while the three slowest cars are powered by Renault units.
Third and final winter test session, Bahrain, Day 1*:
1 Sergio Pérez Force India 1m35.290 105 laps
2 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m36.184 128
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1m36.432 54
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG 1m36.624 89
5 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m37.700 89
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1m37.825 109
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1m37.908 39
8 Max Chilton Marussia 1m38.242 44
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m39.242 55
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m40.599 31
11 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1m42.285 19
*Unoffical timing
 |
| Sergio Perez, Sahara Force India (Photo: Sahara Force India) |
Driving the Mercedes-powered Sahara Force India VJM07, Perez set a 1m36.290, almost a full second quicker than the second place Valtteri Bottas.
"We really needed a good day to start this week and today we had it,” said Perez.
“We managed to do a lot of laps, try several different compounds and mappings, and it's been a fantastic day in terms of learning about the car. Tomorrow is my last day in the car before the season starts so hopefully we can have another solid day to be in good shape for Melbourne.”
 |
| Valtteri Bottas, Williams (Photo: WRI2) |
Finland’ Valtteri Bottas finished the day in second place with a time of 1m36.184 in the Williams-Mercedes.
The day started by testing some aero components, all of which correlated well with what the team expected from the wind tunnel. Williams did a race simulation this afternoon including laps to the grid and everything that goes into a race and that also went well.
 |
| Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari (Photo: WRI2) |
Kimi Raikkonen was third in the Ferrari F14 T. This morning’s work soon got delayed, because of a problem on the car that took some time to fix before the lunch break. Once back on track in the afternoon, Raikkonen managed to run regularly, alternating between aero measurements and a series of set-up tests over short runs.
Fourth was Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes AMG W05. Technical problems brought running to an end one hour earlier than planned for the German team.
 |
| Pastor Maldonado, Lotus (Photo: WRI2) |
Adrian Sutil ranked fifth in the Ferrari-powered Sauber. The Swiss team performed front wing and suspension work. Then, the team went on to do low fuel qualifying runs until early afternoon, before switching to high fuel race simulations.
McLaren rookie driver Kevin Magnussen ran short runs in the morning before the team ran a full race distance in the afternoon.
Daniel Ricciardo was 7th for Red Bull Racing, beating Max Chilton in the Marussia, Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso, Pastor Maldonado in the Lotus and Kamui Kobayashi in the Caterham.
 |
| Kamui Kobayashi, Caterham (Photo: WRI2) |
It is interesting to note that the three of the top four cars are powered by Mercedes power units while the three slowest cars are powered by Renault units.
Third and final winter test session, Bahrain, Day 1*:
1 Sergio Pérez Force India 1m35.290 105 laps
2 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m36.184 128
3 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1m36.432 54
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes AMG 1m36.624 89
5 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m37.700 89
6 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1m37.825 109
7 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1m37.908 39
8 Max Chilton Marussia 1m38.242 44
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m39.242 55
10 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m40.599 31
11 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1m42.285 19
*Unoffical timing