Image courtesy of Mercedes AMG Petronas
The weather in Spielberg had improved for the second day of testing, and drivers took to a dry track from the off.
Valtteri Bottas was driving the Williams FW37. His team concentrating on aero runs in the morning session in which he finished fastest, with a 1:10.029, and would go on to carry out mechanical setup work in the afternoon session.
Nico Rosberg took control of his Mercedes W06 today. His morning session included aero work and tyre analysis but his morning was cut short due to a gearbox problem which was quickly fixed by the team for the afternoon session. Rosberg proceeded to set a 1:09.113 to lead the timing screens.
Mercedes’ reserve driver, Pascal Wehrlein, was driving the new-spec Force India today. The German enjoyed a smooth days running giving Force India valuable knowledge of their car going into its maiden race at Silverstone next week.
The Ferrari SF-15T was driven by the Scuderia’s third driver, Esteban Gutierrez. The Mexican only completed 27 laps in the morning session with the team focusing on “development work” for the day. The Ferrari man finished in 2nd with a 1:09.931.
Fernando Alonso was back in the McLaren after his accident in Sunday’s race. The Spaniard completed just 18 laps in the morning but was the first back out on track in the afternoon session.
The Sauber was being driven by Felipe Nasr. The Brazilian’s morning schedule went “according to plan” and the team focused the afternoon session studying the aerodynamics and brakes.
The marathon man of the morning was Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, completing 74 laps before the break. The RB11 caused one red flag by stopping in the pitlane entry with an hour to go.
The Lotus E23 was driven by reserve driver, Jolyon Plamer. Restricted running yesterday meant the Brit had a “full programme” to power through today.
Driving the Toro Rosso was Marco Wittmann – the 2014 DTM champion. A test day with Toro Rosso was part of the reward from BMW for his success. The German topped 100 laps early in the afternoon session and showed good pace in a single seater. An impressive showing, giving the team good information.
The session was brought to an end seconds before the flag dropped by Palmer in the Force India causing a red flag.
