Bahrain third 2014 test Test day four
Live Text
Sort by
On track, Hulkenberg moves up to third, 0.7s slower than Bottas.
Red Bull
EDD STRAW is in the pits and was watching the Red Bull crew recovering the RB10 just now:
"There's no obvious damage - the car is all broadly intact.
"But the team struggled to roll the car into the garage. Something seemed to be inhibiting rolling when they were trying to back it in.
"Work is now going on underneath to work out why."
Green flag
The Red Bull is back in the garage and the track is open again. Vergne, Sutil and Hulkenberg head straight out, and Bottas follows.
Twitter
@Marussia_F1Team: "Progress this morning has been frustrated by an electrical problem, which is confining us to the garage while we work to resolve it."
The flatbed truck is on its way back to the pits with the Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel
Vettel emphasised yesterday that he didn't see any point getting "emotional" about Red Bull's problems.
But despite doing his utmost to keep positive, he did admit that "we thought we would be in a much better place this week compared to last week. That hasn't really been the case."
More from Vettel on Red Bull's state
When the circuit CCTV cameras cut to Vettel he was already out of the car, standing at the rear taking a closer look while taking his helmet off.
Red Bull mechanics are covering the car up, as the mobile crane gets into position to recover it.
Fire extinguishers are in action, tending to the rear of the RB10.
It's the Red Bull of Vettel. The car has a hint of smoke, but the most bizarre thing is that the Red Bull - which appears to have gone straight on - is at 180 degrees to the direction of the track.
Red flag
We have our first red flag of the day. There appears to be a car off at Turn 1.
As this is the last day of testing, it also represents your last chance to put some questions to our F1 Editor EDD STRAW ahead of the 2014 season. He'll be answering a selection this afternoon, so submit yours to live@autosport.com or using #autosport on Twitter.
No heroics from Bottas just yet. He opens with a 1m37.5s, and next time round logs a 1m40.8s.
Grosjean improves in the Lotus to move up to P8.
Grosjean improves in the Lotus to move up to P8.
Bottas and Kobayashi join the action as well. Will this be another 'pace' run for the session-topping Williams that has been so strong this morning?
Vettel heads back out after a stay of nearly 30 minutes in the pits. He and fellow-German Sutil are the only cars on track.
Lotus reports that, prior to that run, the car had been undergoing some software updates.
Grosjean gets the Lotus a bit closer to the pace with a 1m41.3s, and returns to the pits straight after.
That run finishes with a 1m36.9s, and Bottas comes back to the pits.
Bottas backs off for a lap, and then puts in a second low 1m36s on this run.
Sutil is the first man to get past 50 laps today. Not only is he playing catch-up after his Sauber expired at the end of its installation lap yesterday, but after lunch he is handing over to team-mate Esteban Gutierrez so he has less than 90 minutes of pre-season testing remaining.
The Williams loses 1.3s on its next flying lap.
Stopwatch
Bottas is picking up where team-mate Felipe Massa left off yesterday as he continues to raise the bar at the top of the timesheets.
The Williams is the first car into the 1m34s today.
The Williams is the first car into the 1m34s today.
Gilles Villeneuve
We reckon the 2014 engine is still going to be more manageable than Ferrari's first turbocharged F1 racer, the 1981 126CK.
It's seen here in Gilles Villeneuve's hands in practice for that year's Canadian GP.
In case you missed it earlier this year, Villeneuve featured unsurprisingly high up AUTOSPORT's list of F1's greatest non-champions:
The best 25 drivers who never won the F1 title
Third-placed Vergne finds six tenths, pushing the Toro Rosso closer to Alonso's best time.
Quote
The two-time world champion also shares the view of a lot of fans regarding the best F1 engine formula in the last decade:
"The nicest cars were the V10s when I arrived in Formula 1. Then the V8, now the V6, hopefully we will not see the V4. Maybe we will, but I will not be in Formula 1 then."
"The nicest cars were the V10s when I arrived in Formula 1. Then the V8, now the V6, hopefully we will not see the V4. Maybe we will, but I will not be in Formula 1 then."
Quote
Alonso explained earlier this week that the power of the new turbo engines is capable of catching drivers out.
"The driveability of these cars is different," he said, "because the turbo is coming a little bit in a hit so you need to anticipate when the power will come."
"The driveability of these cars is different," he said, "because the turbo is coming a little bit in a hit so you need to anticipate when the power will come."
Twitter
Fans of oversteer - the @InsideFerrari Twitter page is worth a quick look. It has just posted pictures of Gilles Villeneuve and Fernando Alonso fighting oversteer in their respective Prancing Horses.
Bottas is still going, now lapping 2s adrift of his session-topping time set earlier in this run.
We have clear skies here and a slightly lower air temperature than we've seen for most of the week - 22C.
Track temperature is 41C.
Track temperature is 41C.
Bottas's next lap is 0.3s slower than his best, but still fractionally faster than his nearest challenger has managed today. The Finn ended the lap strongly, setting a new overall best time through the final sector.
Stopwatch
They haven't spread out much by the next time they come around, and Bottas - the leading car of the trio - goes back ahead of Alonso at the top of the times.
We've just had three cars cross the start finish line very close together, something you don't see much during testing when the teams only have one car each. Bottas, Button and Vettel were all sharing the same piece of track.
Jenson Button
McLaren started the winter strongly but of late other teams seem to be overhauling it. That's certainly Button's suspicion, as BEN ANDERSON found out last night:
Cause for concern at McLaren
Button finishes the lap 0.6s shy of his best, while Alonso's first flying lap of this run is within a tenth of the fastest lap of the day.
Alonso, Button and Vettel are on track, and the McLaren is on course for an improvement at the moment.
Vergne moves to third in the Toro Rosso.
Hulkenberg is back out in the Force India, and he moves ahead of Button to go fourth. Third-placed Sutil improves as well.
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised to see Alonso and Ferrari at the top of the times today. After completing a race simulation on day two of this test, the Spaniard urged Ferrari to focus on finding more performance from the F14 T over the rest of the test.
Ferrari didn't get a chance to do much work in that direction yesterday, as Kimi Raikkonen's morning running was disrupted by a problem and the focus of the afternoon had to be his first attempt at a race run.
Ferrari didn't get a chance to do much work in that direction yesterday, as Kimi Raikkonen's morning running was disrupted by a problem and the focus of the afternoon had to be his first attempt at a race run.
And let's follow that up with our first lap count rundown of the day too:
Sutil (Sauber) 36
Bottas (Williams) 29
Kobayashi (Caterham) 25
Alonso (Ferrari) 19
Vettel (Red Bull) 18
Vergne (Toro Rosso) 14
Chilton (Marussia) 10
Hulkenberg (Force India) 9
Button (McLaren) 8
Grosjean (Lotus) 6
Hamilton (Mercedes) 0
Sutil (Sauber) 36
Bottas (Williams) 29
Kobayashi (Caterham) 25
Alonso (Ferrari) 19
Vettel (Red Bull) 18
Vergne (Toro Rosso) 14
Chilton (Marussia) 10
Hulkenberg (Force India) 9
Button (McLaren) 8
Grosjean (Lotus) 6
Hamilton (Mercedes) 0
Breaking news
Nearly two hours down in the final day of 2014 pre-season testing, and here's a recap of what we've seen so far:
*Mercedes yet to run due to gearbox problem
*Alonso and Bottas set the pace early on
*Red Bull and Vettel log 18 laps while doing aero work
*No red flags so far
*Mercedes yet to run due to gearbox problem
*Alonso and Bottas set the pace early on
*Red Bull and Vettel log 18 laps while doing aero work
*No red flags so far
By: Matt Beer, Glenn Freeman, Ben Anderson, Dan Cross
Published:
Page:
