Pastor Maldonado topped the timesheets for the second time in three days as Lotus continued their encouraging pre-season testing form in Barcelona on Saturday.
The Venezuelan driver, quickest on the opening day of the test on Thursday, lapped the Catalan circuit in 1m 24.348s on supersoft tyres in the afternoon session to finish just under four tenths of a second clear of Toro Rosso rookie Max Verstappen.
Verstappen, who also used supersoft tyres to set his best time, albeit in the morning, was the day’s lap leader, completing an impressive 129 circuits - equivalent to nearly two Grand Prix distances.
World champion Lewis Hamilton was third fastest for Mercedes, just ahead of Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson who spent much of the morning consigned to the garage with gearbox issues. The Swede eventually racked up 53 laps; the Briton 101.
Sebastian Vettel also cracked the 100-lap barrier for Ferrari after recovering from an embarrassing start to the day when he spun his SF15-T into the gravel on his out lap from the pits. The German ended with a best time of 1m 26.407s, which was marginally quicker than Daniil Kvyat’s best effort for Vettel’s former team, Red Bull.
Williams split their running between Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, with the Brazilian recording 55 laps in the morning and the Finn 49 laps in the afternoon. Massa set the slightly quicker time of the two drivers, though Bottas spent much of his spell in the car doing pit stop practice.
Mercedes reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein split the two Williams cars on the timesheet; the young German lapping in 1m 27.333s as he continued his spell in Force India’s year-old VJM07.
Bringing up the rear was Jenson Button on what was another hugely frustrating day for McLaren. The Briton completed just 24 laps, many of them at reduced power, as the team continued to be afflicted by problems with the MGU-K element of their Honda power unit.
Testing concludes at Barcelona on Sunday.
Unofficial Saturday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1m 24.348s, 104 laps
2. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1m24.739s, 129 laps
3. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m26.076s, 101 laps
4. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 26.340s, 53 laps
5. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1m 26.407s, 105 laps
6. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1m 26.589s, 111 laps
7. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 26.912s, 55 laps
8. Pascal Wehrlein, Force India, 1m 27.333s, 81 laps
9. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1m 27.556s, 49 laps
10. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1m 29.151s, 24 laps
(source: f1.com)
