Day 2 in Jerez – Button goes fastest, 97 laps for Rosberg

Jenson Button has set the fastest time today in Jerez, on the first day of testing for McLaren after they weren’t able to take part on the test yesterday. Nico Rosberg has done almost a hundred laps with his Mercedes, while the teams powered by Renault are having serious reliability problems that are limiting their time on track.

The day began with a truck wetting the track so that the teams could test rain tyres. However, they’ve not spent much time on the wet track, which had become dry by midday. Esteban Gutierrez has been the one who’s done more laps in the morning, but he’s also been the cause of the first red flag after he ran wide and got stuck in the gravel. The Sauber driver has been able to go back to the track later and he’s done 53 laps.

The second red flag of the day appeared after Sergio Pérez had to stop his Force India when its back started smoking. The Mexican has done 37 laps, which is an improvement from the 11 he did yesterday. He’s been 5^th, 4,2 seconds behind Button.

The Englishman from McLaren has done 43 laps today without any apparent problems. Besides, he’s been on top of the time-sheet all day, which has let him be the fastest man today with a 1:24.165. Second fastest was Kimi Raikkonen with his Ferrari, 0,647s behind Button. The Finnish has done 47 laps, which added to the 31 he did yesterday is quite good.

Bottas has been 3^rd with the Williams (1:22.344) and 35 laps, after just 7 yesterday in the last few minutes. Rosberg’s finished after him and he’s compensated for Hamilton’s accident yesterday with 97 with no problems at all. The Mercedes engine is the one with more laps done up to now with all the teams it powers (Mercedes, McLaren, Williams and Force India). It’s closely followed by Ferrari, with the Scuderia and Sauber (and Marussia having missed the two first days of testing, but they hope they’ll be able to be on track tomorrow after the car’s arrived at the circuit this afternoon).

Teams powered by Renault haven’t been so lucky; all of them together have just been able to do 38 laps in Jerez. Toro Rosso hasn’t been able to take the car out today after a problem with the ERS, so Daniil Kvyat hasn’t had the chance to make his début yet. Vettel’s just done 8 laps on his Red Bull and furthermore the car’s caught fire while on the box. That’s been the end of testing for Sebastian until the tests in Bahrain.

It’s been Caterham with Marcus Ericsson the Renault-powered team with more laps done today, 11. However, the Swede has been responsible for the third and last red flag on the day when his Caterham stopped on track. Team Lotus, also powered by Renault, have not been nor won’t be in Jerez. Worrying problems for Renault in a season on which mechanical reliability will be truly important. We’ll see if they are able to solve these problems before the beginning of the season in Australia.

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