Jerez F1 test: Nico Rosberg sets commanding early pace for Mercedes

The Mercedes F1 W06 was the first car on track when the pits opened, and Rosberg set about logging more laps than anyone else by some margin as he quickly got down to long-run work.

Prior to that, the 2014 runner-up set a best time of a 1m23.106s, putting him 1.5 seconds clear of Daniel Ricciardo by the time most teams stopped for a short break around lunchtime.

Ricciardo completed a series of short runs in the camouflage-liveried Red Bull, but by the afternoon he only had 22 laps to his name and his last run had ended with smoke from the back of the car (pictured below).

New Sauber signing Marcus Ericsson set the second-highest number of laps on his way to being third quickest on a morning where very few cars completed significant running.

Lotus's E23 only started its journey to Spain this morning, while Williams, Ferrari and McLaren's lap tallies were in single figures by lunchtime.

Ferrari sent four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel out early to get his first taste of the new SF15-T, but despite completing a handful of short runs in the morning his outings were sparse as the day went on.

Williams made a late start with Valtteri Bottas due to carrying out "double checks" on the new FW37, while Fernando Alonso made sporadic appearances on track with the Honda-powered McLaren.

In a step forward from McLaren's first test with the Japanese manufacturer last year in Abu Dhabi, the car completed a handful of single-lap runs before Alonso set one timed lap that was 17 seconds off the pace.

His fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr completed 20 laps for Toro Rosso, with the F1 rookie mainly focusing on short runs and practice starts.

TODAY'S TIMES SO FAR:

Pos  Driver            Team        Time                 Laps
 1.  Nico Rosberg      Mercedes    1m23.106s            80
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo  Red Bull    1m24.641s  +1.535s   22
 3.  Marcus Ericsson   Sauber      1m24.804s  +1.698s   30
 4.  Valtteri Bottas   Williams    1m25.167s  +2.061s   9
 5.  Sebastian Vettel  Ferrari     1m25.764s  +2.658s   9
 6.  Carlos Sainz Jr   Toro Rosso  1m26.081s  +2.975s   20
 7.  Fernando Alonso   McLaren     1m40.738s  +17.632s  6