The first day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya had a little bit of everything; a crash, a sick driver, a technical failure and even a driver piloting two different cars. At a time the sport is seeking ways to attract the fans, this was certainly the right way to do it.

The day got off to a bright, albeit chilly, start, and championship favourite Lewis Hamilton was first to post a time. Sadly, his day was to end soon after, the Briton withdrawing from the rest of the day's running after suffering a fever.

As the Brackley-based outfit called on reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein, on duty along the pitlane at Force India, to replace Hamilton, it emerged that Nico Rosberg is also unwell, the German understood to be suffering from an inflamed nerve in his neck.

Over the course of the day there were four red flags, two in the morning, both caused when Pastor Maldonado stopped on track with a technical problem, and two more in the afternoon.

The first of these was when Susie Wolff and Felipe Nasr clashed and ended up in the gravel at T5 shortly after lunch. The Sauber appeared to come off worse, suffering damage to its rear wing, rear suspension, gearbox and floor, Wolff subsequently admitting that (on a slow lap) she hadn't seen the Brazilian in his blue and yellow car. cue a number of suitably moronic comments on Twitter.

Following lengthy repairs, both drivers were able to continue, though Nasr stopped on track in the final seconds of the session bringing out the final red flag of the day.

It was another difficult day for McLaren. Despite a promising start, Jenson Button's day was brought to an end after just 31 laps following an issue with the MGU-K.

"We've had to stop running today due to a faulty seal on the MGU-K which caused an issue that requires full replacement of the power-unit," revealed the Woking outfit. "Such issues are all part of testing and we will plan for a productive day of running with Fernando Alonso behind the wheel tomorrow."

Sadly, there are fears the problem might not be resolved until Saturday, costing the team further valuable track time.

Despite a late start, Ricciardo was soon on the pace in the camouflage liveried Red Bull, whilst Max Verstappen in action for the Austrian outfit's sister team added another 94 laps to his (already) impressive tally.

Up until 'the crash' it had all been going well for Wolff, who had completed over 80 laps without any significant issues.

Jumping from the 2014 Force India to the 2015 Mercedes didn't prove to be too much of an issue for Wehrlein - presumably because both are using the same power unit - the German youngster completing 32 laps in the former and 48 laps in the latter. His best times in the two cars just 0.160s apart.

While the pace of the Lotus, now aided by Mercedes power, is impressive, Maldonado's 1:25.011 just over 0.2s quicker than Hamilton's 2014 pole time, the sceptic in us wonders whether the Enstone outfit is still out to impress potential sponsors, something that could be said of Sauber also.

Ferrari continues to impress, Kimi Raikkonen still appearing much happier with the SF15-T than at any time in 2014.

Lots of drama and over 600 laps completed. What more can we expect over the next three days.

"It is always good to see your name at the top of the timing monitors and my fastest lap was just in the course of our normal programme for the day," said Maldonado. "It feels good to drive the E23 in Barcelona. The car responded well to the changes we made and we were able to complete a good number of laps. The team has made strong progress since Jerez and we have a great starting point for the rest of the week. The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is a perfect track to assess a new car so we're happy with progress today."

"It's been a positive day," added the Enstone outfit's technical director, Nick Chester. "We had a couple of software niggles in the morning then we were able to work through a solid programme of setup work during which we racked up a good number of laps. The car did have an extended lunch break whilst we changed the clutch, then we were able to complete further work in the afternoon. We're happy that we've made good steps forward since Jerez and we're working steadily through our evaluations whilst confirming directions for improvement."

Third and reserve driver Jolyon Palmer will get behind the wheel of the E23 tomorrow.