Hamilton ups the ante on Day 3

21/02/2014
NEWS STORY

Lewis Hamilton posted the quickest time of the week in Bahrain today as Mercedes powered teams continue to lead the way.

For the third successive day, Mercedes powered cars filled three of the top four spots at the top of the timesheets as the German manufacturer establishes itself as the benchmark in terms of pace and reliability. Between them the four Mercedes powered teams completed 342 laps (1,150 miles), compared to 209 laps (702 miles) for the Renault powered teams and 144 laps (484 miles) for the Ferrari teams.

Over the course of the three days in Bahrain thus far, the Mercedes powered teams have completed 886 laps compared with 505 (Lotus) and 462 for the (three) Ferrari teams.

The works team continued its programme with today's efforts focussed on short runs on the softer tyre in the morning, followed by an attempted race distance in the afternoon. However, a failure on the car interrupted the race simulation; though Hamilton completed another 22 laps once it was fixed.

"It was nice to be able to put together a good lap today because generally speaking there seems to be less grip available than last year," said Hamilton, clearly preparing for the season ahead. "I'm looking forward to completing a race simulation next week as we didn't quite get to finish it today. We're trying to find any issues we can now to prevent them happening during a race situation, so from that perspective it's a positive that we were able to find and fix something again today.

"The car seems to be responding well to my style of driving and the power unit is looking promising, with all of the Mercedes-powered team completing good mileage. We won't know where we are for definite until we get to Melbourne so we're just continuing to focus on our run programmes, keep positive and look forward; the team has done a great job to get where we are today so we just need to keep that going.

"Today was a good day overall," added Paddy Lowe. "We ran a programme in the morning looking at some of the softer tyres, which was very useful to learn a bit more about the car, especially looking at a single lap. We attempted a race distance but suffered a failure that halted this for a while. We did manage to get back out and continued with that until the end of the day to post a good amount of laps. Not a trouble free day, but we learnt a lot about the car from a performance and reliability point of view, so we can come back tomorrow in even better shape."

Jenson Button had plenty to smile about today, not only was he second quickest and the busiest driver - completing 103 laps, including a full race distance - he also announced his engagement to girlfriend Jessica Michibata.

With rookie teammate Kevin Magnussen proving that he is no slouch and fully prepared to take on the sport's elder statesman, the 2009 world champion showed that he is fully prepared to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in.

"Today was a really busy session," said Button, "my engineers looked exhausted afterwards, and I've never seen that before! It was good to put some laps on the car without any major issues. We actually did a race distance in the afternoon, and it was nice to do that so early in testing. Still, that session showed us we still have a lot of work to do.

"The thing we really need to focus on is fully understanding fuel-saving, and the communication required between the driver and engineer. I think we'll get on top of things, though, because we're traditionally very good at that.

"We're in a reasonable position: today was positive because we gathered so much information. There's still a lot of work to do before the first race; we'd like to be faster, but when you look at other test days, you'd say we're in reasonable shape."

There was a change of plan at Williams, the Grove outfit running Valtteri Bottas in the morning before handing over to Felipe Massa whose running on Wednesday was severely compromised by a fuel system problem.

The Finn completed 55 laps over the course of the morning, however as the team was working on pit stop practice and starts he failed to post a time. Massa, on the other hand went third quickest in the afternoon whilst completing a further 60 laps, thereby making the FW36 the busiest car out there.

"We had a very good morning focusing only on pit stops and race starts," said Bottas. "We again ran the programme without any problems and we were improving the pit stops and starts throughout. It was good to get more mileage on the car even though I didn't do a timed lap myself. It is very important work for the races as this is one area we need to improve."

"It was a very busy afternoon," added Massa. "It was a shame we couldn't drive on the first day as that would have helped us get even further along today but the most important thing was that we found and solved the problem. The car then did 116 laps yesterday, and we did 115 laps today combined so that is very positive. We did a lot of pitstop practice, which was the main goal today, and I saw a big improvement from the start of the day to the end which is important for the team to be ready and prepared for the first race.

"I think we are going in a good direction," he continued. "The car is running well and I am happy. There is still a lot to do and to understand about the car, and improvements to the set-up that we haven't had time to do yet, but it's very positive so far."

"The main target for today was to practice pit stops with the race team," admitted Chief Test & Support Engineer, Rod Nelson. "We ended up doing 43 live pit stops and went through our race start procedures. We then did some chassis work at the end of the day with Felipe to try and make up for some of the time he lost on day one.

"We are happy with how it has gone today. The car is proving to be solid and we are getting a good handle on things including starts performance and all the practical homework we need to do before we go racing in Melbourne. Overall, we are making good progress."

With Mercedes power units filling four of the top five spots at the top of the timesheets, Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez, using Ferrari power, spoiled the party, albeit almost 3s off Hamilton's pace.

The Mexican completed 96 laps on a day the Swiss outfit was able to practice pit stops and gain experience on the soft and super soft compounds for the first time in Bahrain. Further aero tests were also on the programme.

"It was another productive day," said the Mexican. "I did a good amount of laps and was able to drive decent long runs. We did have small issues, but were able to solve them quickly. Mechanically and aerodynamically the car is working well, and it is becoming more consistent.

"There is still some work to do in other areas, but we are making progress," he continued. "I was able to explore a lot of 'new-set' tyres, and this is very helpful to get to know qualifying and race procedures. It is important to understand these procedures properly, so I know what to expect and to be able to predict how the tyres react in certain situations. This means I can extract the maximum out of them."

"Today the weather conditions were better than in the past two days," added Giampaolo Dall'Ara, the team's Head of Track Engineering. "We worked on various set-ups to cope with the different tyre compounds used today. It was the first time that we had explored the soft and super soft compounds here in Bahrain, and we were able to do a reasonable amount of laps. This morning we fine tuned the set-up and systems based on the experience from the last few days and did qualifying preparations. In the afternoon we worked on race preparations. We got some long runs done and also a few pit stops throughout the day."

Sergio Perez clocked up 57 laps in the VJM07 as Force India continues to make steady progress. "Although I did two days of testing in Jerez, today was my first proper experience of the car with everything working as planned," said the Mexican. "There was a small delay this morning, but the rest of the day was interesting and we were able to do some good work in preparation for Melbourne. The first time I drove the car in Jerez it felt very different, but after today I am already getting used to the feeling. There's less downforce this year and lots of power so it's an interesting challenge."

"It has been a useful day for the team and the first chance for Sergio to do some baseline set-up work in the VJM07," added Otmar Szafnauer. "There were a few small issues which slowed our progress this morning, but the afternoon was more productive and we were able to complete a long run before the end of the day. Sergio will remain in the car for tomorrow and we will try and concentrate on more long runs."

With Fernando Alonso in the top three on both the previous days, things were a little tougher for Kimi Raikkonen today. The Maranello outfit's day began with further aerodynamic work, as well as some set-up evaluation and practice starts from the pit lane. However, after just 12 laps, the team encountered a problem with the data connection to the telemetry, which involved recalibrating and reactivating the system. The programme then resumed and ran more effectively in the afternoon as the team continued to concentrate mainly on set-up work.

"We didn't do as many kilometres as we had been hoping for because even though the problem was a minor one, it still took a while to fix," said the Finn. "It shows how complicated these new systems are, but in the afternoon we managed to run consistently. It was useful in terms of getting used to the environment inside the cockpit after the Jerez test and to check some settings relating to the balance of the car."

After a dreadfully frustrating day on Wednesday when he only completed 5 laps, things were a little better today for Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat. The Faenza outfit - the leading Renault powered team today - continued getting to grips with the demands of the 2014 regulations. This involved software and mapping work relating to the power unit in addition to acquiring data on the aero side.

Bearing in mind the race season is getting ever closer, like many of its rivals, the team also took the opportunity to do some live pit stops and worked on other race weekend procedures.

"This was the first time I have managed to do a lot of running," said Kvyat, "and it was very important for me, as well as for the team, that I completed 57 laps. We worked on many things and made progress in several areas. There is still a lot to do, but I am happy at the end of what was a productive day. Tomorrow it's Jev's turn to keep moving forward and then we can have a few days to see what we have learned, before the final session starts again."

It was another difficult day for Lotus as Pastor Maldonado, getting his first taste of the E22, completed 26 laps and finished over 5s off the pace. Then again, teammate Romain Grosjean managed the same amount of laps over the previous two days of testing.

The Venezuelan was the cause of two red flags in the afternoon when he stopped out on track, having already lost much of the morning as the team worked to resolve various issues with the car one of them gearbox related and another to do with the Energy Recovery System.

"It's great to complete my first day of testing with the team, even if we didn't get the number of laps we'd want," said Maldonado. "The car feels good with what we've done so far and it's great to be working with everyone in the garage. It's all been very easy from that side of things and I know I'm going to work well with everyone through the year. We had some problems today, but we hope that tomorrow will be better. I can't wait for some more laps."

"We started the day with a promising morning," added Alan Permane. "Pastor settled in very quickly and we were able to make some progress with the car. Unfortunately, in the afternoon we had a number of gearbox related problems. Renault have made good progress with the software and Energy Store so we are headed in the right direction in that regards. We have identified the issue related to our gearbox and we have parts on their way from Enstone. Given the distance they have to travel, we may not be out first thing tomorrow, but we expect to be able to make further progress once we do take to the track."

After two days of apparent 'progress', Red Bull took a step backwards today, Daniel Ricciardo completing just 28 laps and posting a best time 6.5s off Hamilton's pace. Midway through today's running the Milton Keynes based team discovered a mechanical problem and in anticipation of tomorrow's final day, the decision was taken to suspend running in the afternoon.

"It was going OK," said Ricciardo. "I did some good laps and those came off the back of the more than 50 laps Seb did yesterday, so we're getting there. Obviously, I would have liked to do more this afternoon but we still have tomorrow ahead of us and it's important to be ready for that.

"The car is definitely making progress though," he insisted. "It's coming together bit by bit. We'd love a big chunk all at once but obviously that's not the way these things work, so we have to be a bit patient for now. However, it is coming and we're heading in the right direction. Tomorrow it would be nice to get more laps in and then roll on next week."

"After yesterday's good work we had another positive period overnight with the car build, which we're getting quite good at, and it looked good this morning," added Race Engineering Co-ordinator, Andy Damerum. "We were focused on short runs for Daniel, as the car feels very different to the one we had in Jerez and we wanted to build things up gradually for him. We made more changes over lunch and in doing so we came across a mechanical issue that we hadn't encountered before and because of its nature it means we have to take the car apart. As everyone in the pit lane is finding out this is a long process, so we decided to suspend running in the afternoon so that we can be ready for the final day.

"These issues are of course frustrating," her admitted, "but this was unrelated to the others so it's just a case of tackling each issue as it appears. A tough night in prospect but we hope to get a good day in tomorrow."

At Caterham, with three weeks until the cars take to the track in Melbourne, Marcus Ericsson qualified for his super license, the Swede completing the necessary (300) number of kilometres - and with a few to spare. In total, the rookie completed 98 laps, the most of any of the Renault powered teams today, indeed, over the course of the three days the Anglo-Malaysian outfit has enjoyed more running than any of the other Renault teams.

"I'm pleased with how my first day in Bahrain went," said Ericsson. "98 laps is obviously very good news in terms of reliability, and it also means I've passed the 300kms I needed to do to qualify for a Superlicence. The boys have worked really hard today and we've pretty much had no issues which meant I could just get on with the program, and that was the main goal for today.

"Performance-wise there's still a lot more to come, both from the car and the engine. The times today didn't really mean anything, and although it's always nice to put in a quicker time, we've been doing pretty long runs all day and just working through the plan. Now I can't wait to get back in the car again and hopefully our reliability record so far will hold up."

"Another positive day and 98 laps for Marcus means we have managed to complete a lot more of the program we set for this test," added Cedrik Staudohar, Renault Sport F1's Track Support Leader. "For most of the day we were focused on long runs, continuing to try different Power Unit maps that are helping us improve the driveability of the package, something that is of critical importance with the increased torque we have this year.

"It is also good to have that much mileage with Marcus after the limited running we had with him in Jerez. Tomorrow we will continue to increase the performance output of the Power Unit and aim for a similar number of laps as we achieved today."

It was another dreadful day for Marussia which over the three days has managed just 24 laps. Hoping to put the frustrations of the past two days behind it and start achieving some solid mileage with the MR03, the Russian outfit encountered an engine problem early in the session, causing Max Chilton to stop out on track after just four laps.

The engine anomaly was investigated by Ferrari in tandem with a replacement engine being prepared for the car, in the hope that it might have been possible to complete a few further laps at the end of the day. However, despite best combined efforts, it was not possible to return the car to the track in the timeframe available and the focus switched to preparing for the final day of running tomorrow, when Jules Bianchi is back in the car.

Check out our Friday gallery, here.

Chris Balfe

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Published: 21/02/2014
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