Vettel fastest in opening F1 testposted in F122 | 02 | 2016
FERRARI'S SEBASTIAN VETTEL (pictured) finished top of the timeheets at the end of the first official Formula One pre-season test at Barcelona.
The former world champ posted the fastest time round Circuit de Catalunya, clocking a best of 1min 24.939secs — set during the morning session — just 0.470s faster than reigning world champ Lewis Hamilton.
But while Vettel managed only 69 laps in his new 2016 Ferrari, Hamilton completed a phenomenal 156 laps. No other driver got close to 100 laps: the next best was the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson, who completed 88 laps.
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Third on the timesheets was the Red Bull of Dniel Ricciardo, 1.105s off the Ferrari's pace, with the Williams of Valtteri Bottas fourth. Force India reserve, Mexican Alfonso Celis Jr, finished the day a solid fifth on his F1 debut clocking 1:26.298s, 1.359s off Vettel's best time.
And there were smiles at McLaren. Twelve months on from completing 79 laps over the four official pre-season test days at the start of the 2015 season, Jenson Button completed 84 today. The former world champ also set the sixth-fastest time, 1:26,735s, still 1.796s off the fastest time by Ferrari.
The test debut for the new American-based Haas team ended prematurely with a front win failure in the morning. In the hands of Romain Grosjean, the car completed just 31 laps, finishing 10th overall with a best time of 1m28.399s.
The teams return to the circuit tomorrow for the second of four days testing
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Jim McGill