Grosjean tops day 2 of final winter test

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Romain Grosjean went fastest around Circuit de Catalunya by completing a lap in 1:22.716 towards the end of the dry afternoon. Jenson Button posted the second time while Pastor Maldonado was third fastest for Williams.

The day began with a completely wet circuit, but rain stopped soon after the start of the session. As such it not hamper running a lot, although it was perhaps a little less interesting to perform aerodynamic testing. Wtih the track improving however, the afternoon proved much more productive and useful for the teams.

When the morning session got halted 10 minutes early due to a red flag caused by Alonso, Button was fastest on a damp track thanks to a quick lap on intermediates.

The afternoon saw a lot of action, including some teams introducing new parts to their cars. Fernando Alonso for instance tested a new exhaust solution on the Ferrari all day, focusing on checking aerodynamic performance, rather than pace. This made him end up in 11th place, 5.1 seconds off of Grosjean's fastest lap.

Nico Rosberg was in a similar position, as Mercedes were not after ultimate pace, but rather long runs and reliability checks. The German ended the day with 120 laps on his counter, 4 seconds slower than the Lotus F1 driver in front of the pack.

Half an hour before the uninterrupted afternoon, Giedo van der Garde came to a halt in his Caterham, and 20 minutes later Pastor Maldonado also stopped on track. The latter red flag was also the chequered flag, as the circuit opted not to restart the session for 3 minutes of testing.