Bahrain F1 test summary: Williams and Mercedes take the honours
Williams finished the final pre-season Formula 1 test of 2014 with the fastest time, as Mercedes-engined cars continued to lead the way in Bahrain, and Red Bull continued to struggle
Felipe Massa went quickest on day three of the test, lapping within a second of Nico Rosberg's pole time for last year's Bahrain Grand Prix and edging out Rosberg's team-mate Lewis Hamilton (fastest on the final day) by two hundredths of a second.
Williams was arguably the strongest performer across the final test, racking up more miles than any other team and suffering just one reliability issue, when the FW36's Mercedes engine blew up on Valtteri Bottas in the closing stages of the final day.
Meanwhile, the works Mercedes team suffered more glitches that hampered its running at this test, leading Rosberg to say that Mercedes is still not reliable enough heading towards the first race in Melbourne.
The W05 required what the team described as a "precautionary" engine change ahead of day three, before a gearbox problem cost Hamilton nearly half the final day's track time.
| Bahrain test reports |
| Thursday: Perez leads opening day |
| Friday: Perez stays on top |
| Saturday: Massa sets new benchmark |
| Sunday: Hamilton ends testing in front |
Red Bull's test started badly when ongoing cooling issues with the RB10 forced Daniel Ricciardo to miss most of the first day and declare the champion squad had "not been up to scratch" in pre-season.
The Australian was more optimistic after a productive second day, during which he clocked 66 laps (including 20 consecutively) and set the third fastest time, but that proved merely a positive blip in an otherwise miserable week.
World champion Sebastian Vettel failed to complete a lap on Saturday (despite two attempts) thanks to electrical problems, before a "mechanical issue at the front of the car" pitched the German off at Turn 1 on Sunday morning.
He returned to the track in the afternoon, but failed to complete a race run while lapping at reduced pace.
Sister squad Toro Rosso managed more laps, but only went slightly quicker than Ricciardo with Jean-Eric Vergne at the wheel at the end of the final day, while fellow Renault-powered team Lotus suffered a disastrous test.
The Enstone squad found its running scuppered by exhaust problems and engine failures, leading technical director Nick Chester to declare the team's cars would be lucky to make the finish in Melbourne.
Ferrari finally managed to complete race runs with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, after falling behind with its programme at the previous test.
But both were significantly slower than Mercedes managed, and team principal Stefano Domenicali admitted the Scuderia has "work to do" to catch Mercedes and Williams, which outpaced Alonso on the final day.
| AUTOSPORT columns from Bahrain |
| Ferrari: Prancing or limping horse? |
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Jenson Button expressed similar sentiments about McLaren's chances after a difficult final test for the Woking team.
Team-mate Kevin Magnussen completed 197 largely trouble-free laps, but wound up only 11th fastest overall, while Button clocked only 74 after suffering a loss of drive on day two and an engine failure on day four.
Force India also had an engine failure on the final day in Bahrain with Nico Hulkenberg driving, but the German's team-mate Sergio Perez hailed the "great step" made by the team since the second test.
The Mexican topped the times on the first two days and managed more than 100 laps on each of them - including an impressive race run on Friday.
Bar the engine problem that robbed Adrian Sutil of a full day's running on Saturday, Sauber again showed the C33 has reasonable reliability but lacks speed. Sutil was only 13th fastest overall, and team-mate Esteban Gutierrez 17th.
Marussia made decent progress with its car at the final test, managing to lap within four seconds of the ultimate pace with Max Chilton at the wheel on the final day, while Caterham clocked more laps but could not get within a second of the pace of its back-of-the-grid rival.
Combined test times:
Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap Day
1. Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m33.258s Sat
2. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m33.278s +0.020s Sun
3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m33.484s +0.226s Sat
4. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m33.987s +0.729s Sun
5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m34.280s +1.022s Sun
6. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m35.290s +2.032s Thurs
7. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m35.426s +2.168s Sat
8. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m35.577s +2.319s Sun
9. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m35.701s +2.443s Sun
10. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m35.743s +2.485s Fri
11. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.894s +2.636s Sat
12. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m36.113s +2.855s Sat
13. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.467s +3.209s Sun
14. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m36.835s +3.577s Sun
15. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.901s +3.643s Fri
16. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m37.087s +3.829s Sat
17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.303s +4.045s Sun
18. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.468s +4.210s Sun
19. Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m38.083s +4.825s Sat
20. Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m38.391s +5.133s Sun
21. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m39.302s +6.044s Sun
22. Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m40.599s +7.341s Thurs
Total running in test three:
Drivers:
Laps Km
Valtteri Bottas 236 1277
Sergio Perez 213 1152
Felipe Massa 202 1093
Kevin Magnussen 197 1066
Fernando Alonso 196 1060
Esteban Gutierrez 192 1039
Nico Rosberg 192 1039
Nico Hulkenberg 189 1022
Adrian Sutil 181 979
Marcus Ericsson 172 930
Lewis Hamilton 159 860
Jules Bianchi 153 828
Kimi Raikkonen 141 763
Daniil Kvyat 136 736
Jean-Eric Vergne 135 730
Kamui Kobayashi 125 676
Max Chilton 105 568
Daniel Ricciardo 105 568
Sebastian Vettel 78 422
Jenson Button 74 400
Romain Grosjean 65 351
Pastor Maldonado 62 335
Teams:
Laps Km
Williams 438 2370
Force India 402 2175
Sauber 373 2018
Mercedes 351 1899
Ferrari 337 1823
Caterham 297 1607
Toro Rosso 271 1466
McLaren 271 1466
Marussia 258 1396
Red Bull 183 990
Lotus 127 687
Engines:
Laps Km
Mercedes 1462 7912
Ferrari 968 5238
Renault 878 4751
Total running across pre-season testing:
Drivers:
Km
Nico Rosberg 2813
Fernando Alonso 2698
Kevin Magnussen 2471
Valtteri Bottas 2389
Lewis Hamilton 2159
Esteban Gutierrez 2122
Felipe Massa 2034
Adrian Sutil 1917
Nico Hulkenberg 1840
Kimi Raikkonen 1790
Sergio Perez 1777
Jenson Button 1683
Marcus Ericsson 1536
Kamui Kobayashi 1365
Jean-Eric Vergne 1347
Daniil Kvyat 1111
Jules Bianchi 982
Sebastian Vettel 866
Daniel Ricciardo 845
Pastor Maldonado 796
Max Chilton 704
Romain Grosjean 492
Felipe Nasr 471
Robin Frijns 412
Daniel Juncadella 359
Teams:
Km
Mercedes 4973
Williams 4893
Ferrari 4489
McLaren 4153
Sauber 4039
Force India 3975
Caterham 3313
Toro Rosso 2458
Red Bull 1711
Marussia 1686
Lotus 1288
Engines:
Km
Mercedes 17994
Ferrari 10214
Renault 8770
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