Barcelona Tests I – Day 4: Grosjean and Lotus F1 Lead, Mercedes Impresses, Alonso Unhurt

Lotus therefore accumulated the top positions during this first session of the Barcelona tests. Romain Grosjean indeed placed his E23 at the top of a hierarchy whose truthfulness remains questionable, after Pastor Maldonado did the same on the first and third days.

The Frenchman clocked a time of 1:24.067 with super-soft tires, while his runner-up, Nico Rosberg, was two seconds slower on medium tires during a performance stint late in the afternoon. Pirelli had indicated that medium tires could potentially be one and a half to two seconds per lap slower than super-soft tires. Daniil Kvyat, who finished in third place, was six-tenths behind the German, on soft tires. It seems that Mercedes has a lot of potential up its sleeve that should be more significantly revealed next week, again in Barcelona, from February 26 to March 1.

The highlight of the day was nevertheless the off-track incident involving Fernando Alonso, driving the McLaren MP4-30, at turn n°3 just before the break. Although it was not very destructive, the accident required an ambulance intervention and hospitalization of the Spaniard, who was OK and conscious according to his team, which also explained that a scan revealed no injuries. He will remain under observation until tomorrow afternoon. This brought an end to the team’s tests, which could not allow Jenson Button to drive afterwards.

After the break, it was Carlos Sainz Jr who crashed at the same turn three, emerging unscathed but unable to participate in the rest of the session.

Barcelona Test Rankings I – Day 4: