Lewis Hamilton led Friday’s third day of testing for Formula One at Bahrain. Of course, there were more quotes of note to emerge from the day. Here’s a nugget from each of the 11 teams at the end of day:
- Friday pace-setter Lewis Hamilton’s race simulation for Mercedes was interrupted, but he was still pleased with his level of running today. “It was nice to be able to put together a good lap today because generally speaking there seems to be less grip available than last year,” the 2008 World Champion said in the team’s post-day release.
- Something apart from the standard line of quotes from McLaren’s Jenson Button, after clocking in second on Friday. “Today was a really busy session – my engineers looked exhausted afterwards, and I’ve never seen that before!” exclaimed the 2009 World Champion, who completed a day-high 103 laps. Button also announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Jessica Michibata, in a bit of happy news for the paddock.
- High marks were offered by Williams’ chief test and support engineer Rod Nelson after Felipe Massa ended P3 and Valtteri Bottas spent the day doing live pit stop practice. “We are happy with how it has gone today. The car is proving to be solid and we are getting a good handle on things,” said Nelson. Massa hailed the afternoon as “busy” and “very positive;” Bottas confirmed there were no problems.
- A good day for Sauber as well, with Esteban Gutierrez and the team able to practice pit stops and gain experience on both Pirelli’s soft and super soft compounds. “We did have small issues, but were able to solve them quickly. Mechanically and aerodynamically the car is working well, and it is becoming more consistent,” said the young Mexican.
- Sergio “Checo” Perez took over at Force India and said he was continuing to get used to the feeling of the car, but had a few small issues in the morning. Still, 57 laps completed for him and he’ll have a second day on Saturday.
- A telemetry glitch slowed Ferrari in the morning, as Kimi Raikkonen took over from Fernando Alonso. From director of engineering Pat Fry: “Today was a bit frustrating, because we were stopped for quite a time with a small but tricky problem. We knew that sooner or later we would have to deal with some problems and that was what happened.”
- For Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso, a heavy day of running was just what the doctor ordered. “This was the first time I have managed to do a lot of running and it was very important for me, as well as for the team, that I completed 57 laps. We worked on many things and made progress in several areas,” he said in the team’s post-test release.
- No official quotes or release from Lotus today, same as the rest of the week. But Pastor Maldonado did a Q&A on the team’s website yesterday , and got his first running of the week in today, so there’s that…
- Daniel Ricciardo remained upbeat despite the latest early stoppage for Red Bull. Said the Australian, “Obviously, I would have liked to do more this afternoon but we still have tomorrow ahead of us and it’s important to be ready for that. The car is definitely making progress though. Tomorrow it would be nice to get more laps in and then roll on next week.”
- It was a big day for Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson, with the Swede earning his FIA Superlicence after completing 98 laps (more than 300 km). “The boys have worked really hard today and we’ve pretty much had no issues which meant I could just get on with the program, and that was the main goal for today,” said Ericsson, who proved in the team’s post-test release he’s already got the standard testing line down.
- Sadly more issues for Marussia and Max Chilton, with the Englishman only adding four laps Friday to his 17 on Thursday. Jules Bianchi returns to the wheel on Saturday.
