Raikkonen tops first day at Jerez

F1 Test, Jerez, Circuit Permanente de Jerez

Kimi Raikkonen ended the first day of running at Jerez on top, celebrating his return to Ferrari in style. The day was however dominated by car launches and teams struggling to get their cars ready to take to the track.

Early on in the day it became apparent that some teams were not ready at all with their cars. Lewis Hamilton was the first to take to the track, completing a few installation laps, as expected. The session though soon got interrupted by Raikkonen stopping in turn 1 immediately after leaving the pits. It later turned out to be a faulty sensor reading, but no risks were taken.

As the session got going again, Toro Rosso also joined the running, along with Force India.

...

Mercedes however soon appeared to be best prepared for the test, but when the lap counter of Hamilton his 21, the front wing broke off of his new Mercedes AMG F1 W05, causing him to crash into the tyre wall at turn 1. As Mercedes did not have any spare front wings at Jerez, it also signalled the end of the day's running of the team. A new front wing will be airlifted tomorrow morning so that the team can continue with the test.

Ferrari, following the slight hiccup, ran only a few laps but in the afternoon got up to speed, allowing Raikkonen to complete stints of up to 6 consecutive laps.

Meanwhile, Caterham joined the track at 15:00 with their CT05, followed later by Williams, and Vettel, the latter coming out with just 15 minutes on the clock and completing 3 laps, including a spin on his first timed lap. Red Bull were stuck in the garage for nearly the entire day due to a spring that was mounted the wrong way.

While Sauber's Gutierrez also completed a limited amount of laps, McLaren failed to get their car going, struggling throughout the day with hydraulic and electrical problems. Marussia on the other hand got delayed at their factory, but reported in the morning that they eventually went on their way to transport their new car to Jerez, set to make its track debut on Thursday.