Hamilton on top as pre-season testing draws to an end

Red Bull Racing takes steps forward as first Grand Prix looms

The fourth and final day of testing in Bahrain has come to an end it is Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who finishes the day on top of the time sheets with a fastest lap of 1:33.278, a full 0.7 seconds ahead of the mornings’ fastest man Valtteri Bottas.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finished third for the day just slightly over a second off the pace set by Hamilton.

Mercedes will be pleased with their end to the day after starting the morning working on a gearbox issue for Hamilton and spending most of the session in the garage. By the time the lunch break came around, Hamilton had completed just 5 laps whilst placed seventh on the time sheets. By the close of the day, Hamilton and Mercedes were once again on top with a full 69 laps on the tally.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas spent the morning on top, completing 60 laps of mileage on the car and positing the fasting time of the session as the team were looking to ‘tick 20 items off the to-do list’ today. Bottas added another 48 laps in the afternoon, putting him on a total of 108 for the day and the most of any driver, just ahead of Kobayashi’s 106 laps.

Given an extra morning in the car after enduring a morning of engine problems on Saturday, Adrian Sutil quickly made up for lost time in the Sauber, posting 91 laps before the end of the morning session with a fifth fastest time. Sutil then handed the car over to teammate Esteban Gutierrez for the afternoon session. Adrian Sutil will now not be back in the C33 until the first practice day for the Australian Grand Prix in just under two weeks’ time.

Gutierrez also enjoyed a successful outing in the afternoon putting 86 laps on the Sauber and giving the team a combined 177 laps on the day, more than any other team.

Red Bull suffered from another mechanical issue today, this time at the ‘front of the car’ according to the team, which caused Vettel to go off at turn 1 early in the day. Returning to the track for the afternoon session, Vettel managed 77 laps, but at a slower speed than others. Vettel finished ninth fastest as the team prepare to head off to Australia with a list of problems still to overcome.

Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean and Nico Hulkenberg all suffered from engine failures today, limiting their last day of testing in Bahrain. A clutch issue also stopped Caterham’s Kobayashi for a short period, but the team enjoyed in all a successful day, recording 106 laps and tenth fastest time ahead of last placed Romain Grosjean in the Lotus.

Jean-Eric Vergne had a successful day in the Toro Rosso completing 74 laps and going fifth fastest overall, though Vergne holds on to comments that he hopes the team will simply ‘see the finish line’ in Australia.

An electrical fault on the MR03 held Marussia’s Max Chilton back early in the day, but a late surge from Chilton saw the young driver catapult himself and the team into seventh fastest for the day, splitting the Sauber’s of Sutil and Gutierrez and posting the fastest testing time for Marussia this year.

Pre-season testing for the 2014 Formula 1 Grand Prix calendar is now completed. The 2014 Formula 1 season commences on the weekend of March 14 -16 for the 2014 Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne Park, Melbourne.