Massa tops day 1 as McLaren struggles on

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Kimi Raikkonen kicked off the first day of the second testing session at Barcelona, going out at precisely 9 o'clock for an installation run. He was soon followed by Marcus Ericsson in the Sauber C34.

10 minutes later, everyone apart from Grosjean, Kvyat and Button did a lap. Kvyat soon attempted to go out, but stopped halfway in the pitlane to get pulled back to the box by his mechanics.

Button did his first lap at 9:30 while Grosjean had to wait another 20 minutes before venturing out on track. The Lotus driver got into the rythm quickly while Button returned to the pits, eventually completing just 7 laps in the first two hours of the day.

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Little past 12, a few drops of rain triggered everybody to return to the pits. Rain intensified in the next minutes and eventually eased off, allowing Kvyat to go out at around 12:30 using intermediate tyres.

During that break, McLaren Honda revealed their day was finished with just 7 laps on the counter. A hydraulic leak on the car mandated an engine change.

After lunch, Marcus Ericsson commenced a race simulation that was interrupted by a red flag caused by Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard's Toro Rosso stopped out on track at turn 10, briefly causing a red flag situation.

Towards the end of the day, Massa and Ericsson in particular took on the soft tyres and seemingly pushed to find out a bit more on the performance potential of their cars. Felipe Massa thereby emerged on top, setting the fastest lap at Barcelona this winter so far.