Barcelona F1 test: Perez puts McLaren on top on day two

The Wednesday afternoon session featured few changes from the opening part of the day, but the most significant came early on.

Perez's lap of 1m21.848s was achieved on a one-lap sprint on soft tyres, and deposed morning pacesetter Sebastian Vettel by 0.349 seconds.

Red Bull attempted a race simulation in the afternoon, albeit one punctuated by lengthy sessions in the garage.

Vettel then came to a halt just past on the pit exit when he rejoined after his third pitstop of the run because of a loose wheel.

But the Red Bull was swiftly revived in the garage and able to rejoin for the final minutes of the session.

Vettel's issue caused one of only two red flags all day, the second coming when Max Chilton parked his Marussia on track in the closing minutes.

After losing the entire morning while his Lotus underwent a gearbox change, Kimi Raikkonen managed 43 laps in the afternoon.

He jumped to third quickest with his first outing and remained there, half a second behind Perez.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso completed the top five, followed by Valtteri Bottas on his debut in the new Williams FW35.

Hamilton completed the most laps of the day with 121.

Today's times

Pos  Driver             Team          Time       Gap     Laps  Tyre
 1.  Sergio Perez       McLaren       1m21.848s           97   Soft
 2.  Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull      1m22.197s  +0.349   84   Soft
 3.  Kimi Raikkonen     Lotus         1m22.697s  +0.849   43   Medium
 4.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes      1m22.726s  +0.878   121  Hard
 5.  Fernando Alonso    Ferrari       1m23.247s  +1.399   76   Medium
 6.  Valtteri Bottas    Williams      1m23.561s  +1.713   98   Soft
 7.  Daniel Ricciardo   Toro Rosso    1m23.718s  +1.870   70   Medium
 8.  Paul di Resta      Force India   1m23.971s  +2.123   62   Medium
 9.  Nico Hulkenberg    Sauber        1m24.205s  +2.357   88   Medium
10.  Max Chilton        Marussia      1m25.115s  +3.267   67   Soft
11.  Charles Pic        Caterham      1m26.243s  +4.395   102  Medium

All the photos from the Barcelona test

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