Test report – Bahrain day three
Date Friday February 21 2014
Driver Jenson Button
Location Bahrain International Circuit (5.412km)
Laps/km 103/557
Best laptime 1m34.976s
Programme For the third day of the test in Bahrain, Jenson took over driving duties from Kevin Magnussen, continuing the general set-up and evaluative work that the Dane had initiated on Wednesday and Thursday.
Jenson completed a mammoth 103 laps today, a tally which included the MP4-29’s first full race-distance, which was completed in the afternoon.
Jenson said: “Today was a really busy session – my engineers looked exhausted afterwards, and I’ve never seen that before!
“It was good to put some laps on the car without any major issues. We actually did a race distance in the afternoon, and it was nice to do that so early in testing. Still, that session showed us we still have a lot of work to do.
“The thing we really need to focus on is fully understanding fuel-saving, and the communication required between the driver and engineer. I think we’ll get on top of things, though, because we’re traditionally very good at that.
“We’re in a reasonable position: today was positive because we gathered so much information. There’s still a lot of work to do before the first race; we’d like to be faster, but when you look at other test days, you’d say we’re in reasonable shape.”
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes AMG 1m 34.263s 67 laps
2 Jenson Button McLaren Mercedes 1m 34.976s 103 laps
3 Felipe Massa Williams 1m 37.066s 60 laps
4 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1m 37.180s 96 laps
5 Sergio Perez Force India 1m 37.367s 57 laps
6 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m 37.476s 44 laps
7 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso 1m 38.974s 57 laps
8 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1m 39.642s 26 laps
9 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1m 40.781s 28 laps
10 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1m 42.130s 98 laps
11 Max Chilton Marussia 1m 46.672s 4 laps
12 Valtteri Bottas Williams – 55 laps
What’s next Jenson wraps up the final day of the test.
Test dates Four days (February 19-22)
