Mercedes led the way as F1 testing resumed in Barcelona on Tuesday, and for the first time the W07 was allowed to stretch its legs on soft tires.
Once again Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton shared driving duties to allow them to rack up a lot of miles, with the German driving in the morning and Hamilton taking over. Between them they logged 172 laps as Rosberg used soft tires to set a best of 1m23.022s.
“It was a decent morning and we're making progress,” said Rosberg. “It was nice for me to be able to push some more and produce some stronger lap times. We were doing qualifying practice this morning - it's important to practise that as well. And that's when it's all the more enjoyable; taking the car to the limit and really pushing.”
“It was a great afternoon of running with great mileage,” added Hamilton. “We did a race simulation and after that I feel I'm ready for race one. The car is feeling great and was consistent all day. It's been a monumental effort from this team to get the car to where it is today. I'm truly grateful to everyone for every bit of work they have put in so far.”
Rosberg was faster than nearest pursuer Valtteri Bottas, despite the Williams driver using ultrasofts – tires that were two steps softer than those used by the Mercedes.
Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso drives during day one of F1 winter testing at Circuit de Catalunya on March 1, 2016 in Montmelo, Spain. Toro Rosso unveiled its livery for the 2016 season Tuesday morning.
“We managed to run without any major issues with the car,” said Bottas. “It was very interesting discovering more about the FW38 and what kind of setups work for this car. I think we managed to make progress. We did some short runs today which I really enjoyed. I still agree with what I said last week – we have improved in the areas where we were weak last year.”
The McLaren-Honda MP4-31 looked a little better than hitherto as Fernando Alonso used soft tires to record the third best time of the day, although he was still over 1.7s behind Rosberg.
Kimi Raikkonen managed only 72 laps for Ferrari – exactly 100 fewer than Mercedes – as the Finn was stopped by a gearbox problem. The Italian team continues to lag behind its main rival in terms of mileage.
“It is normal to have some little issues during testing like we had with the gearbox today, but I am not concerned as we have time to fix it,” said Raikkonen. “That's the purpose of testing, learning new things and trying something different. We still have something to be done of course but it is a normal process this time of the year. It is a different story when we go racing.
“I have no idea what the others are doing, lap times may vary with different tires and fuel levels, but we know what we are doing and we are pretty happy with the way the car is handling. I think we have a very good package, time will tell if it is good enough.”
Felipe Nasr gave the brand new Sauber C35 its first laps after the team used the old car at last week's test, and the car showed good reliability as he logged over 100 laps.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen drove the Toro Rosso in its definitive 2016 livery after it ran in plain blue last week. The Dutchman completed an impressive 144 laps.
In contrast it was a difficult day for Haas as Esteban Gutierrez completed only 23 laps before a fuel system problem stopped him in the morning. The car did not go out again.
Full Tuesday results:
