Felipe Massa and Williams ended at the top of the time sheet on Friday as the first session of Formula One pre-season testing came to a close.
While the World Champions, Red Bull Racing, struggled during testing due to a problem with their Energy Recover System, the Mercedes-powered teams enjoyed a mostly problem-free day.
Mercedes was so reliable, in fact, Nico Rosberg was able to complete a full race distance in time to hand the car back over to Lewis Hamilton, who completed another 41.
Red Bull, meanwhile, was in the pits for the majority of the morning due to mechanical issues. Newcomer Daniel Ricciardo completed only 7 laps, setting a time of 1:45.374 before the team decided to pack up early and head home.
Trailing Mercedes closely was Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari. Proving nearly as reliable as the Mercedes-powered cars, the Ferrari set the second fastest time of the day and completed 115 laps.
Apart from RBR, the other Renault powered teams experienced the same reliability issues. Toro Rosso completed 9 laps, just two more than the struggling Red Bull team, before stalling out on the track.
Despite the issues experienced in Jerez, RBR’s Daniel Ricciardo told Sky Sports he is confident the team will be back on top come time for testing in Bahrain.
“Okay, yeah, it didn’t work so good the last few days, but the confidence I have in these guys to solve the problem we have now is higher than it could be,” Ricciardo said. “For that I have a smile on my face and I know we won’t have these conversations for too much longer.”
He also noted the trouble free progress of his rivals at Mercedes.
“Obviously Mercedes did quite a few laps so in terms of reliability they look good for now. But for speed, they could be doing 100 laps a day but a second or so off the pace. It’s hard to know yet.”
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