Barcelona Testing 1 – Day 4: Kobayashi Finishes in Style

A Sauber in front of a Williams and a Force India to end these tests: a hierarchy certainly far from the reality of the cars’ performance after four days of testing, the lessons of which will remain very limited compared to expectations.

Kamui Kobayashi finishes on top, setting the fastest time of the four days (1:22.312), demonstrating impressive track consistency with 145 laps completed, equivalent to almost two and a half races on the Catalan circuit. The Japanese driver was the cause of the penultimate red flag at the end of the day due to a deliberate fuel cut. He leads by more than two-tenths ahead of yesterday’s leader, Pastor Maldonado, in the Williams, who completed 134 laps.

Next comes a duo of drivers in the service of Her Majesty, as Paul di Resta (Force India) and Jenson Button (McLaren) finish eight-tenths behind the Sauber C31. While the Scot suffered a technical problem at the end of the morning, causing a red flag, the Englishman was not troubled. The two men completed 101 and 115 laps respectively, but more importantly, they showed promising signs before the end of winter.

Felipe Massa is fifth: the Ferrari once again encountered some issues, preventing him from completing any laps at the beginning of the afternoon. He still managed to complete 103 laps and finished 1.2 seconds behind Kobayashi. Behind him, a duo fueled by taurine, consisting of Mark Webber and Jean-Eric Vergne, both 1.4 seconds behind. The Australian was also unable to run during the first hour of the afternoon and completed multiple short stints (85 laps). For the Frenchman, who completed 92 laps, there were no problems today.

Nico Rosberg placed his Mercedes in ninth position, but the German driver mainly focused on completing long stints, covering a total of 139 laps. The last classified driver, Heikki Kovalainen, experienced numerous problems, allowing him to complete only 70 laps for a very late improvement in his time.

Finally, it was a bad day for Charles Pic who couldn’t complete a single lap due to a suspension problem on his Marussia, which forced the Russian team to pack up quickly, despite an announcement made at the very end of the day.

Private Testing in Barcelona – Day 4