04/02/2015
NEWS STORY
Though there is no official lunch break during testing at Jerez de la Frontera, unlike Barcelona, as the final day of the opening pre-season test reaches 'half-time', Ferrari continues its impressive form.
Once again, following overnight rain the track was damp, however blustery winds and the emergence of the sun dried the track out quicker than yesterday. Nonetheless, the session was over ninety minutes old before the first drivers made the switch to slicks.
Having completed 51 laps, with no problems, Kimi Raikkonen leads the way, the Finn, like his new German teammate Sebastian Vettel, looking totally at one with the SF15-T.
Second quickest is Lewis Hamilton, the Briton no doubt glad to be in the Mercedes and away from the attention of the tabloids. There was a brief scare when the Mercedes spun at the chicane just over two hours into the session, bringing out the red flags. The car was returned to the pits but shortly after the world champion was on his way again.
Romain Grosjean, enjoying his first laps in the Lotus E23, is currently third quickest, the Frenchman seemingly happy with the car.
Whilst Max Verstappen, Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Massa have all enjoyed a relatively trouble-free morning, the same cannot be said for Jenson Button or Daniil Kvyat.
The last to emerge from his garage this morning, Button had only moved a few metres when the MP4-30 ground to a halt and had to be pushed back into its "box". Thankfully he was back on track a few minutes later.
Once the lights went green following Hamilton's stoppage, Button took to the track and finally posted a time. However, on a subsequent run the car ground to a halt at the end of the pitlane and had to be rescued. Within a few minutes the Briton was back on track, but nonetheless, the "Fun in the sun: Jenson's putting more miles on MP4-30 this morning," tweet from McLaren appeared a little ambitious.
At Red Bull, where Daniil Kvyat was keen to make up for Monday, when he damaged the only front wing the team had available, there were more problems when the Russian stopped on track after just 8 laps. The team subsequently reporting that it "looked like an ERS problem".
Morning Times - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Raikkonen | Ferrari | 51 | 1:22.537 | 120.009 mph |
| Hamilton | Mercedes | 52 | 1:23.633 | 1.096 |
| Grosjean | Lotus | 53 | 1:23.802 | 1.265 |
| Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 57 | 1:24.101 | 1.564 |
| Ericsson | Sauber | 39 | 1:25.081 | 2.544 |
| Massa | Williams | 27 | 1:25.136 | 2.599 |
| Button | McLaren | 14 | 1:28.309 | 5.772 |
| Kvyat | Red Bull | 8 | 1:37.195 | 14.658 |
Check out our Wednesday gallery, here.