• Ferrari shows more speed, Mercedes completed the highest mileage.
• Honda is having problems with the McLaren MP4-30 and got only 79 laps.

There are 267 days left on the Countdown to the Mexican Grand Prix, to start the Formula 1 engines roaring again at the renewed Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, for the XVII edition of the great fair. Meanwhile, in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, the first testing session for the 2015 campaign has been completed.

The tests held at the Spanish circuit, began on February 1st, in the presence of seven of the nine teams on the grid 2015, missing Lotus- who arrived late- and Sahara Force India, who has decided skipping the first test – and possibly the second one as well- in order to develop the VJM-08 to its maximum performance for the season. On Sunday, February 1st Ferrari lead the way with the four-times world champion Sebastian Vettel, being the fastest to score a 1’22.620” time in a layout of 4,428 meters in the South of Spain. The Mercedes W06, with Nico Rosberg at the wheel, completed 157 laps, without searching to reach a fast time, and finished four tenths from Vettel. In contrast, the McLaren-Honda gave six laps in the hands of two-time champion, Fernando Alonso and finished very far, spending most of the time in the trenches, looking for electrical faults.

On Tuesday evening it was raining, therefore the morning after had the best weather and Vettel kept improving his lap from day before to 1’20.894”, followed by Felipe Nasr in the Sauber Ferrari almost from 9 tenths. The reigning champion, Lewis Hamilton, took command of the W06 and experienced a failure in the evening, therefore only completed 90 laps, but completed a full race simulation smoothly. Jenson Button got the same result to his teammate Alonso in the McLaren; he completed six laps, over half a minute from Vettel. Lotus debuted its E23 with the Mercedes engine, with Pastor Maldonado taking, over 40 laps and Daniil Kvyat made its debut in camouflaged Red Bull RB11 breaking the front wing, so he spun on one of the laps.

For the third day, Sauber surprised with the novice Nasr, who got the fastest time of the day with 1’21.545” over the C34, beating the Ferrari SF15T of Kimi Raikkonen for a couple of tenths, meanwhile a relieved air was breathed in the trenches of McLaren-Honda when Alonso completed 32 laps, although his best time was 15 seconds behind the Sauber. Rosberg, without soft tires, kept testing long races and was the other driver to break the 82 seconds barrier in the day. Felipe Massa in the Williams FW37 set the best time for the Grove firm during the week, right after watching Valtteri Bottas on previous days.

Testing came to an end on Wednesday, February 4th and Kimi Raikkonen became the fastest of the week with a registered time of 1’20.841”, finishing with Ferrari as the only one, who decreased 81 seconds in four days. However, Lewis took Mercedes beyond the 2,000 kilometers on tests with 117 laps in the day, using Pirelli as hard compound, and the reliability of the German Champions seems to be solved, it remains to be seen if they race in their pursuit of speed subsequently. Max Verstappen set the best time of the week for the motor cars Renault in his Toro Roso STR10 and probed that despite his age (17 years old) he is ready for
Formula 1. The next pre-season testing will be held in the Montmeló circuit, Barcelona, from February 19th to February 22nd.

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Photos: Courtesy teams
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