Maldonado on top as Spanish test ends

2014 F1 season

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The second in-season test of the year concluded at the Circuit de Catalunya today with Pastor Maldonado setting the fastest time for Lotus.

Drier conditions saw quicker lap times and busier programmes for most teams than yesterday, three of which completed more than 100 laps of the Spanish circuit.

The busiest driver was McLaren tester Stoffel Vandoorne, who amassed over 600 kilometres of running, more than twice what he needed to earn his Formula One superlicence. Vandoorne also performed tyre testing for Pirelli, as did Force India’s Daniel Juncadella, who off and damaged the front of his car early on in the day.

However Caterham’s plan to run Robin Fijns in today’s test had to be abandoned as repair work on the chassis Kamui Kobayashi crashed yesterday could not be completed on time.

Susie Wolff had her first run in a test session this year for Williams and had a harmless spin on her way to the fifth-fastest time.

Meanwhile Mercedes evaluated a new design of exhaust designed to amplify the sound created by the new V6 turbo engines in a bid to counter criticised of the quieter sound they produce.

DriverCarBest timeLapsDifference
1Pastor MaldonadoLotus-Renault E221’24.871102
2Nico RosbergMercedes W051’25.8051020.934
3Kimi RaikkonenFerrari F14 T1’26.480941.609
4Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari C331’26.972852.101
5Susie WolffWilliams-Mercedes FW361’27.280552.409
6Jules BianchiMarussia-Ferrari MR031’27.718552.847
7Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault RB101’27.973733.102
8Daniel JuncadellaForce India-Mercedes VJM071’28.278913.407
9Stoffel VandoorneMcLaren-Mercedes MP4-291’28.4411363.570
10Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault STR91’28.910214.039

2014 F1 season


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Image © Lotus/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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48 comments on “Maldonado on top as Spanish test ends”

  1. Maldonado and Chilton confirmed to save us from Mercedes domination.

  2. So I take it that Maldonado was the only driver who ran on super softs

    1. And maybe Susie Wolff.

      1. How do you figure that?

        1. Because she’s a woman, obviously.

          For the record, her time was set on mediums – which would have placed her p8, ahead of Massa. Granted – you have to consider that this was a test but I figure that Williams was going as fast as it could on this track for qualifying. You have to respect that time for what it is, Susie Wolff flexed some proper muscle at this test.

          1. @jorsh Indeed, not bad to be only a quarter of a second off a WDC runner-up. Williams will know more about track grip levels to compare the days..

            I am genuinely wondering now if Simona will beat Gutierrez and Van der Garde on pure pace once up to speed! But in the early season Sauber, it’s likely whoever was lightest would be fastest… not that a big weight handicap stopped Sutil matching or beating Esteban.

  3. On top of…. some kind of barrier?

    1. …or another car? Actually, 102 laps without taking out another car is what I would call a successful test for Maldonado.

    2. On top of whose car ? :D

      1. You beat me to it!

        1. in other words , you got chilton’ed ;-)

          1. Heh, I just wrote this on a picture of the Monaco incident the other day.. anyone who puts Maldonado in the wall has got to have balls.. who knows what the payback might be!

      2. “Pastor mounted the Williams of Susie Wolff, leaving everyone present wondering if this was a macho aggressiveness or payback to the Williams team Pastor is still funding… A third group on twitter were surprised it took this long for Pastor to hit something”!

  4. Those laptimes are far better than anything set during the last weekend! Fastest lap set by Vettel during the race was near 1:28. Maldonado (surprise!) set 1:24!

    Is it a different layout? Am I missing something?

    1. Oops! Hamilton’s Pole position was 1:25.232. But I still think the cars are getting faster..

      1. Alexander (@)
        14th May 2014, 18:03

        They used super-soft tires when in qualifying they used mediums.

  5. First he get’s overtaken by a Caterham, now Vettel’s behind a Marussia in a test session…

    I’m sure he’s starting to get a tad fed up ;)

    1. *gets

  6. I find it very funny that videos on youtube with mercedes leaving pits with this exhaust were deleted. FIA guys don’t want us to understand that “megaphone” doesn’t improve the sound at all? The sound is the same. Really. Maybe a bit louder, but you don’t notice it until you hear a car with usual exhaust.

    1. @albedo

      FIA guys

      Not to nitpick but FOM are the commercial rights holders so when it comes to F1 videos being taken off YouTube it’s their domain, not the FIA’s.

      1. @keithcollantine As usual, FOM sweep up while the FIA takes the blame!

  7. Christmas continues…

  8. Does anyone know what lap and what tire Bianchi set that time on?

      1. What about Susie?

        1. Nice time from Jules.. he ran well in the race too. Imagine if Williams had run a super-soft lap to put Susie on top.. commentators would have a field day trying to argue which driver deserved less to be on top at the tests!

  9. So it’s Maldonado vs Chilton for the title then.

  10. It seems to me that Marussia has really taken a big step forward this season, they are now probably in the position to take the fight with Sauber. And do take in to account that they have the smallest budget in F1, They are definitely miles ahead of Caterham, which I personally think and hope would disappear next season.

    1. You want a team to “disappear”? Over 300 people are employed by Caterham, and their mortgages depend on that team existing. Plus it would reduce the grid to 20 cars, which would only add fire to the ridiculous 3 car plan.

      1. *Fuel to the fire…

      2. Indeed, if anything a more equitable distribution of funds (think Premier League, rather than La Liga) would allow more people to be employed and Marussia/Caterham to be firmly on the back of the Sauber.. there could be hundreds more people employed in these lower grid teams, and at least 150 to put Caterham/Marussia on the tail of the midfield.

  11. See Susie isn’t that bad? She may even have had a qualifying-spec car, best tyres and low fuel, but 2.4s slower than Maldonado under any circumstance as a rookie is not a bad result.

    1. +1

      I was going to say something similar – well done whatever the spec!

      1. Go Susie! Would love to see her getting a seat.

    2. GB (@bgp001ruled)
      15th May 2014, 4:31

      why would a driver get a qualy-spec car in a test? i mean: it would make much more sense to test the car in race conditions, right? and given that susie has never driven a current car, have her drive a qualy set-up makes even less sense!
      respect: i think she did a great job. obviously i am paying more attention to her since she is a woman, but made a really good job. hope to see de silvestro doing tests soon…

  12. hang on, wasn’t tuesday completely wet? yet hamilton seems to have done dry running?

  13. #Maldonado4WDC

  14. Why does Williams waste test time with Suzy Wolff?

    Oh right, her husband still owns $55 million worth of the team. How on earth he isn’t facing a conflict of interests bewilders me.

    1. I thought he sold up his shares in Williams a while ago? I could be wrong…

    2. Pretty sure Susie was involved with Williams before Toto

    3. The exact same thing could be said with the other test drivers.. but Susie I can see having setup feedback skills/car development skills etc. from her long time in motorsport at the highest level e.g. Karting world championships.

      The exact same thing is why Davidson is still employed by Mercedes to develop their car in-sim, same for Rossiter at Force India etc… these guys would also be thought of as ‘past it’, yet the young drivers are being groomed to race, while testers (think de la Rosa, Paffett etc.) are very valuable for their own role as well. De Silvestro is being groomed to race, Susie for testing.. Nasr is the one who will replace Massa at Williams, to keep the Brazilian sponsorships going once Massa retires.

    4. get over yourself, let her have a go, even if money is involved, how new is that in f1??????? people still make a deal out of it BECAUSE SHE IS A WOMAN and that is sexism.

  15. SUSIE!!!!! I have a massive crush on that woman lol

    1. To clarify, because I know some people may not like that comment. I admit I have a crush on her, but at the same time if you follow her on twitter and Facebook, you can see that she is a very determined and smart person who is willing to be patient and willing to learn. I find her very inspirational.

  16. So it’s official, Chilton and Maldonado are the two best drivers in formula 1.

    1. Nope just fuel flow test for works teams.

    2. £10 to the person that guesses how many times this tired (and distinctly not funny) old ‘joke’ will do the rounds…

  17. Would it be possible to state on what tires the (best) times have been obtained?

    This would certainly put the times in proper perspective

Comments are closed.