Button fastest on second day at Jerez

F1 Test, Jerez, Circuit Permanente de Jerez

Jenson Button set the fastest time of the day in a reliable run for McLaren as testing got up to speed today at Jerez. More teams managed to do a decent amount of laps.

The morning got off to a wet start, with Pirelli deciding to water the damp racing circuit to allow for some wet tyre testing. With no sun out before noon, the track remained rather wet, gradually drying out to allowing intermediate tyres as well. Track action was limited though with most teams opting to do only a small number of laps each run.

Mercedes wasn't active in the morning either and only managed to get out on the track little before noon following the mounting of a new front wing on their car. Rosberg did a few installation laps before getting on with longer runs, ending the day with an impessive 97 laps completed.

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By 14:00 however, it became apparent that all Renault powered cars were having some sort of issue, with none of them able to do more than 3 consecutive laps. Red Bull Racing confirmed there was a serious issue as the Renault turbo in the back of Vettel's Red Bull RB10 caught fire in the pits. It was immediately the end of the day for Red Bull, allowing Vettel to return home. Renault later confirmed the problem was in one of the electronic control boxes and new parts will be flown to the circuit by tomorrow to alleviate the issues of all three teams.

Moment later, Serio Perez's Force India VJM07 stopped in turn 1 and soon after also caught fire. As the team went on to investigate the issue, it was also the end of the day for Force India.

Half an hour later, Renault's problems got worse still, as Caterham's one attempt to go out after Red Bull's failure ended in a stoppage halfway around the track. Toro Rosso meanwhile was not seen during the entire day.

Things went a lot better for the Mercedes and Ferrari runners, all of them completing several longer runs in between the gremlins that needed to be resolved.