Di Grassi shunt costs Virgin time

The new squad is keen for more dry mileage to dial in its new VR-01 chassis in the final pre-season test in Spain this week, but was forced to spend the afternoon pit-bound after the Brazilian's off just prior to the lunch break.

"We are continuing to debug the car hydraulics and making good progress in our understanding of the issue," explained the team's technical director Nick Wirth.

"Unfortunately when we were running some experimental control settings on the car, which were adversely affecting its handling, this caught Lucas out on the entry to turn nine resulting in a spin and contact with the barrier.

"We're going to need to spend the time before tomorrow replacing some broken suspension and wings. We should be back on track tomorrow morning when we hope to really start building up our mileage."

Di Grassi did manage to complete 31 laps before his spin, setting a best time of 1m27.057s, good enough for tenth fastest and 5.4s off Mark Webber's pace-setting 1m21.487s.