Hulkenberg puts Sahara Force India on top of the timesheets: Testing
Sakhir, 19 Feb 2014: The second of Formula 1’s three pre-season tests kicked off Wednesday morning at the Sakhir circuit here in Bahrain.
Sahara Force India and Nico Hulkenberg finished at the top of the timesheets after the first day of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Day One Statistics:
Chassis: VJM07-01
Laps: 79 laps
Mileage: 428 km
Fastest lap: 1:36.880
Classification: P1
After the busy programme, Nico Hulkenberg said: “A very positive and satisfying day. We had a busy programme and we learned a lot. Time in the car is very valuable at the moment and so it feels good to cover so many laps and even complete two long runs at the end of the day. That gave me a chance to see how the car behaves and to start getting a feel for it, which was not something I was able to do in Jerez. It’s great that we’ve already done some set-up work and started to improve the drivability of the car. But it’s still very early stages; we are learning with every lap and we face a very steep learning curve in the coming days. ”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer said: “Our Bahrain test has got off to a positive start. 79 laps is a good effort and it’s just what we need at this early stage of the VJM07’s development. The aero work this morning ran smoothly with the constant speed runs giving us some aero data we required. In the afternoon we started evaluating the soft and medium tyres, and running through different set-up options – changing ride heights and rebalancing the car. We ended the day with a couple of longer runs on the soft tyres.”
Test driving schedule
Nico Hulkenberg will be back in the VJM07 tomorrow. Sergio Perez will drive on Friday and Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kevin Magnussen drives the opening two days of the test for McLaren Mercedes, with Jenson Button concluding the test by running on Friday and Saturday.
Kevin kicked off proceedings for McLaren by conducting a series of short aerodynamic evaluation runs, complete with monitoring equipment fitted to the car.
In the afternoon, he completed a number of longer runs, aimed at putting mileage on the power unit and components, and also to proof theories and improvements introduced after the first test in Jerez earlier this month.
Kevin completed the second-highest mileage of the day, and, despite a slow start to the morning, was pleased with his progress.
1 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m 36.880s 78 laps
2 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m 37.879s 64 laps
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1m 37.908s 74 laps
4 Kevin Magnussen McLaren Mercedes 1m 38.295s 81 laps
5 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1m 40.224s 14 laps
6 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1m 40.443s 82 laps
7 Robin Frijns Caterham 1m 42.534s 68 laps
8 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m 44.346s 5 laps
9 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1m 44.832s 8 laps
10 Felipe Massa Williams – 5 laps
11 Jules Bianchi Marussia – 3 laps
