Perez fastest on first day of final test in Bahrain

Red Bull moves forward and then quickly falls behind

Force India’s Sergio Perez has set the pace on the first day of the final pre-season test in Bahrain. Perez was over a second clear of his on track rivals setting the bar high for the three days of testing ahead. Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was placed second with Raikkonen and the Ferrari just behind in third.

Sergio Perez set his fastest lap of 1:35.290 in the mornings’ session as all teams and drivers were quick to get on track to start the first day of the final four day test in Bahrain. The lap time proved unbeatable over the course of the day but it was not long before Mercedes powered cars topped the time sheets in the first three slots with Rosberg second and Magnussen third by the 13:00 lunch break. Perez also finished the first day of testing with 109 laps of mileage on the car.

Rosberg, who was the last person to set a timed lap in the morning session, quickly became the person with the most mileage completed, finishing the morning with an impressive 64 laps to his name – a full 21 laps more than Toro Rosso’s Kvyat and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas.

Red Bull showed some signs of improvement early in the day as Daniel Ricciardo completed 32 laps before the lunch break. In between runs though, the RB10 spent most of its’ time undertaking serious amounts of work in the team garage. As the afternoon session got underway, there were no further signs of the RB10 and late in the afternoon Ricciardo was spotted doing media and promotional work.

Continuing to struggle with what is expected to be a problem with overheating, Red Bull have taken another step back as the first race of the season is now just 2 weeks away in Australia. The team did however manage to get back on track with just minutes left in the days’ session, trying to get as much mileage on the car as possible before the chequered flag fell. He would end the afternoon with a further 7 laps to added to his morning laps tally.

Going back to Force India and Sergio Perez – his lap time of 1:35.290 was over a second clear of the fastest lap set by Nico Rosberg in Bahrain last week, making him for now, the fastest man in Bahrain for 2014.

Sauber’s Adrian Sutil had a better morning with 31 laps completed and found himself just a tenth of a second behind the McLaren of Kevin Magnussen whilst Williams’ Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top six of the morning session. Williams’ reliability continues to impress with Bottas managing 43 laps before the lunch break.

By the end of the day, it was none other than Williams’ same Valtteri Bottas who finished the day with the most mileage completed. Bottas recorded 128 timed laps and second fastest for the day, ahead of P=Kevin Magnussen who completed 109 laps and Perez who finished with 105.

Kimi Raikkonen had a quiet morning with just 12 laps completed as the Ferrari team struggled to work on the car crashed by Raikkonen in the final minutes of the last test in Bahrain. As of lunch time, Ferrari is yet to complete a full race simulation with the F14T. Things looked to be on the up in the afternoon though as Raikkonen used the session to push the Ferrari to the limits again. By the end of the day Raikkonen had completed 54 laps, but brought the day to a pre-mature end when he once again stopped his Ferrari on track with just minutes left in the afternoon session.

Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado was responsible for the first red flag of the day whilst Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi caused the second, citing a technical failure which stopped the car on track in the morning session. With 31 laps and just the tenth quickest time, Lotus announced they were finished early for the day with over an hour left in the afternoon session as the team announced they were changing the exhaust and some other features in preparation for tomorrow. A troublesome new exhaust system was the reason Maldonado stopped early in the day.

Mercedes Nico Rosberg’s charge to rack up the mileage slowed over the course of the afternoon with the team choosing to focus on race setup. Rosberg still took the chequered flag with 89 laps on the car and fourth fastest on the time sheets though.

Max Chilton finished the morning session ahead of Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi in tenth place, but with just 16 laps completed. The team looks to have overcome the IT problems it faced last test though and as the afternoon got underway, Chilton was able to add to his lap tally and even his lap time. As the chequered flag fell on day one, Chilton and Marussia had 44 laps under their belts with the eighth fastest time on the time sheets.

Marussia have concluded their most successful day of testing so far, and won’t be too displeased with the fact that rival teams’ Caterham were unable to complete anything more than 19 laps today after reliability issues stopped Kobayashi for most of the day.

Day 2 of the Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain commences tomorrow, February 28th 2014.