» Massa quickest at Silverstone test

Felipe Massa has bounced back from a disastrous 200th Grand Prix outing at last weekend’s British Grand Prix to post the quickest overall time in the two-day in-season test at Silverstone.

The Brazilian clocked a time of 1:35.262 – about seven-tenths of a second slower than the fastest time of the weekend (Lewis Hamilton’s 1:34.508 in FP2) – on his outing in the Williams FW36. Ferrari stand-in Jules Bianchi was the fastest driver on Day 2 of the test, lapping just two-hundredths of a second off Massa’s pace despite his unfamiliar surroundings.

Day 1: Massa quickest on Day 1

Two days on from an enthralling British Grand Prix, the F1 cars fired back up again for another round of in-season testing, following on from previous tests held at Bahrain and the Circuit de Catalunya.

Massa ended the day atop the timesheets, finishing ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo and championship leader Nico Rosberg.

The Brazilian’s fastest lap time came in the morning’s running, and proved unbeatable for the remainder of the day, although Ricciardo got closest with a time that was just six-thousandths of a second off the 2008 championship runner-up. Rosberg finished 0.289 seconds adrift in his Mercedes, barely atoning for the gearbox failure that put him out of Sunday’s race and saw his lead in the Drivers’ Championship standings over eventual race-winner Lewis Hamilton cut to just four points.

Adrian Sutil was fourth-fastest in his Sauber, while Bianchi – piloting his Marussia before he stepped into Kimi Räikkönen’s Ferrari on Day 2 – was fifth-quickest. Bianchi was one of two driver/team combinations to spend the day doing developmental work for Pirelli.

Ferrari’s Pedro de la Rosa was the other; the Spaniard had his first hit-out in the F14T and finished tenth-quickest.

McLaren ran reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne in its MP4-29, giving the Belgian his second outing in the silver car following his debut run in the preceding in-season test in Spain. The Belgian went fifth-fastest, ahead of Force India’s Sergio Pérez.

Scuderia Toro Rosso’s Jean-Éric Vergne had a troubled day as his STR9 triggered three separate red flag interruptions with individual on-track stoppages. He ended the day eighth-quickest.

Caterham academy driver Will Stevens had his first hit-out for the team and ended the day slowest of the eleven on-track runners.

2014 Formula 1 Silverstone In-Season Test – Day 1 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:35.242		42
2.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:35.248	+ 0.006	72
3.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:35.573	+ 0.289	90
4.	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:35.674	+ 0.432	74
5.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:36.148	+ 0.906	108
6.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:36.462	+ 1.220	71
7.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:36.583	+ 1.341	79
8.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:36.688	+ 1.446	28
9.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:37.131	+ 1.889	97
10.	Pedro de la Rosa	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:37.988	+ 2.746	49
11.	Will Stevens	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:40.627	+ 5.385	95

Day 2: ‘Super sub’ Bianchi fastest

Ferrari development driver Jules Bianchi hopped from his regular Marussia chariot into Ferrari’s F14T on Day 2 of the Silverstone in-season test, and despite his unfamiliar surrounds, he posted the fastest time as the test drew to a close.

The Frenchman, standing in for the recovering Kimi Räikkönen after the Finn’s huge opening-lap accident on Sunday, posted a fastest lap time of 1:35.262 to edge out Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat by 0.282 seconds. McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen was third-fastest.

Kvyat had gone quickest for much of the day until Bianchi’s late effort, but the field was unable to challenge the Ferrari driver’s effort after Giedo van der Garde crashed his Sauber heavily. The Dutchman caused significant damage to his C33 and the trackside barriers – although mercifully without injury to himself – but the resultant damage to the Armco brought the session to a premature close.

Van der Garde wasn’t the only driver to bring out the red flags. Sunday race-winner Lewis Hamilton also achieved the honour, spinning his Mercedes into the Stowe gravel trap early in the morning. That blip aside, the Englishman enjoyed a more productive afternoon once he returned to the track and moved up the timesheets to finish the day fifth-quickest behind van der Garde.

British Grand Prix runner-up Valtteri Bottas took over from Felipe Massa and finished the day sixth-fastest ahead of Marussia regular Max Chilton – tyre testing for Pirelli – while fellow reserve driver Daniel Juncadella backed up his Friday practice outing by lapping seventh quickest for Force India.

Sebastian Vettel took over from Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull RB10 to assist Pirelli with tyre evaluation work, finishing down the timesheets in ninth, over four seconds off Bianchi’s pace.

Lotus reserve driver Charles Pic trialled Pirelli’s 18-inch low-profile tyres in his morning’s running and was well off the pace. He switched to the conventional 13-inch wheels in the afternoon and lapped three seconds faster on the ‘traditional’ rubber.

Newly-signed Caterham academy driver Julián Leal had his first F1 test outing for the Leafield-based team. The Colombian was meant to share driving duties with Caterham GP2 Series racer Rio Haryanto, however the former’s running was disrupted by an early electrical issue. He was eventually able to complete a very respectable total of 51 laps, but the delay was such that Haryanto was deprived of any time in the cockpit.

2014 Formula 1 Silverstone In-Season Test – Day 2 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Jules Bianchi	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:35.262		89
2.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:35.544	+ 0.282	55
3.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:35.593	+ 0.331	91
4.	Giedo van der Garde	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:36.327	+ 1.065	84
5.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:36.680	+ 1.418	47
6.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:37.193	+ 1.931	40
7.	Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:37.359	+ 2.097	77
8.	Daniel Juncadella	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:37.449	+ 2.187	52
9.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:39.410	+ 4.148	76
10.	Charles Pic	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:41.906	+ 6.644	39
11.	Julián Leal	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:42.635	+ 7.373	51