Bianchi quickest for Ferrari as test ends early

2014 F1 season

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Jules Bianchi was quickest in the second day of testing at Silverstone having swapped cars from Marussia to Ferrari.

Bianchi, who stood in for Kimi Raikkonen who is recuperating after his crash in Sunday’s British Grand Prix, ended the day two-hundredths of a second slower than Felipe Massa’s best mark from yesterday, setting a 1’35.262.

The test came to an early end when the red flag was shown when Giedo van der Garde crashed his Sauber.

“In the afternoon, during my last outing on the soft tyres, I unfortunately lost the rear of the car and went into the barrier on my second lap when I was pushing<" he said. "It was a hard crash, but luckily I am fine." The test was not restarted as a section of barrier had to be replaced. Daniil Kvyat was second-fastest for Toro Rosso ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Lewis Hamilton set the fifth-fastest time for Mercedes after bringing out the red flags early in the day by spinning at Stowe.

Caterham were at the bottom of the times for the second day running as a problem with the control unit for the MGU-H limited Julian Leal to covering 51 laps. It also meant they had to abandon their plans to run Rio Haryanto in the car.

Charles Pic was tenth-quickest for Lotus who had a light day while conducting tyres tests for Pirelli, which included running prototype 18-inch tyres and wheels on their car for part of the day.

DriverCarBest timeLapsDifferenceTyres
1Jules BianchiFerrari F14 T1’35.26289
2Daniil KvyatToro Rosso-Renault STR91’35.544550.282
3Kevin MagnussenMcLaren-Mercedes MP4-291’35.593910.331
4Giedo van der GardeSauber-Ferrari C331’36.327841.065
5Lewis HamiltonMercedes W051’36.680471.418
6Valtteri BottasWilliams-Mercedes FW361’37.193401.931
7Max ChiltonMarussia-Ferrari MR031’37.359772.097
8Daniel JuncadellaForce India-Mercedes VJM071’37.449522.187
9Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault RB101’39.410764.148
10Charles PicLotus-Renault E221’41.906396.644
11Julian LealCaterham-Renault CT051’42.635517.373

2014 F1 season


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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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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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31 comments on “Bianchi quickest for Ferrari as test ends early”

  1. I had a thought, which might have sounded outlandish at the start of the season…could Ferrari take a punt on Bianchi in place of Kimi?

    1. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that top three top of the time-sheets again in five years time.. Perhaps as the big dogs at Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren!

    2. That could out beautifully. And it would be even better to have Tio Ellinas fill in for Bianchi at Marussia. First Cypriot to race in F1.

      1. Work out*

    3. I’ve been wondering the same thing. Ferrari is going to go through a period of rebuilding. Why not take a risk and get a younger driver to grow with them? From how poorly Kimi has performed they won’t be losing anything by dumping him. The big question is his contract and how much they would have to pay, if anything. There could be some sort of performance clause where he can be fired.

  2. good for bianchi, ferrari should probably give him seat after next year if kimi retires, unless kimi changes his mind if ferrari does well next year fingers crossed. 3 yr wait is not bad for a ferrari seat.

    1. Bianchi will probably wait. He saw how things worked out for Perez. If not Ferrari, hopefully he can fight for some more points next year.

      1. actually i wouldn’t say it worked out well for perez unfortunately, he fell out of ferrari’s radar when he joined mclaren, we all know what happened there. Though driving for better car is tempting he should only do it if its sauber or wait for 1 more year.

        1. I think I phrased that wrong. I meant to say Perez left Ferrari and now is stuck in Force India, probably with closed doors on both Ferrari and Mclaren.

          1. Dont get me wrong but Force India isn’t that bad. I mean, theyrr probably the best car to drive when it comes to tyre conservagion and theyrr smart in picking their driver to hopefully gt them.up to a front running position, even their test driver is a great score with tons of potential

  3. Who hit the barrier, causing the test to end early? Must have been a big impact to damage the barrier that badly, I don’t remember multiple barrier changes in a weekend before.

    1. maarten.f1 (@)
      9th July 2014, 19:26

      @fastiesty

      Lewis Hamilton set the fifth-fastest time for Mercedes after bringing out the red flags early in the day by spinning at Stowe.

      I suppose Hamilton did, if I read that correctly.

    2. The test came to an early end when the red flag was shown when Giedo van der Garde crashed his Sauber.

      @fastiesty @maarten-f1 I think it was van der Garde

      1. maarten.f1 (@)
        9th July 2014, 20:53

        @blockwall2 wonder if that part was added in an update, it wasn’t there before I believe. So the session was stopped by two red flags then? If not, I’m completely misreading that phrase…

        1. Yeah, I saw on a twitter feed that VDG had a crash near the end. Uh oh..

        2. @maarten-f1 I think it was added in an update. The first time I read the article I wasn’t sure who caused it, but the second time I read that part made it clear who caused it.

    3. this is quite a major bit of news if there was a crash so hard it damaged the carrier, causing a red flag! why has no one reported the details yet?

  4. Dunno about the settings, on-board fuel etc, but Bianchi matched Alonso’s best time (from FP2) for the entire GP weekend ! It looks like he might have been a better choice than Kimi.

    1. Maybe Vettel won’t be the only one to be shocked soon… I can imagine it was low fuel, so the main issues are wind, tyre compound and how much the track got un/rubbered (rain or dry) since FP2.

      1. Aren’t Ferrari running low fuel in practice, since they cant keep up in Qualifying? Even still, for the first time in the car, that’s impressive, over 1s faster than Raikkonen.

        1. @austus Yes, Alonso regularly runs low fuel in FP2, basically a straight up test run for qualifying. So they usually look a little more competitive in FP2 than when it’s qualifying time, as the teams carry a little more in practice by varying amounts. But Alonso probably just wants direct practice at nailing that Q lap in the Ferrari for himself.

  5. “a section of barrier had to be replaced”

    Now where have I heard that one before…

  6. ‘The test came to an early end when the red flag was shown with 18 minutes remaining as a section of barrier had to be replaced. ‘

    um why? did someone crash into it?

    1. Giedo shot first.

  7. Bianchi was running faster than Raikkonen did.. hmm..

  8. The thing I take away from this is he came to grips with the Ferrari in one session and Kimi still hasn’t.

    1. @velocitybo

      i think that the problem is getting the grips with the current V6 Turbos, rather than different cars, Bianchi has adapted to the new era much faster than Kimi, so its not just Ferrari or Marusia, its just a different era

  9. The future of F1 looks really good, Bianchi, Ricciardo, Magnussen, Kyvat all look capable of winning the WDC.

    1. @danbrown180 You forgot Bottas and Hulkenberg. They look incredibly strong too.

  10. Did any one put online the crash of Van Der Garde, i’m so curious to see how he crashed, they said it was a hard one

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