Testing in Jerez - day one: Button sets pace

McLaren’s Jenson Button set the fastest time of the first day’s pre-season testing after an early failure.

Button set the best time of 1:18.861 on a run in the final ten minutes, which put him nearly a second clear of the rest of the field. The fastest time (set on hard tyres) was in complete contrast to the team’s morning troubles as Button had stopped on track after doing just three laps. All due to a fuel pump problem; the delay had kept him in the garage until mid-afternoon and accounting for his relatively low total of only 35 laps for the day.

Second spot was claimed by Mark Webber, after the Australian staged his own late rally following a modest morning in the title-defending Red Bull RB9.

Webber managed to pull ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Lotus with a 1:19.709s (only for Button to trump that almost immediately).

With the top two quickest spots taken, that left the morning pacesetter Grosjean, in third. Force India’s Paul di Resta came out fourth and Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo fifth with this trio all having set their fastest times in the morning.

In the lap count, Paul Di Resta clocked up more laps than any other driver, with his final tally standing at 89.

With Button having caused the first red flag of the day, Nico Rosberg was responsible for the second. Rosberg’s Mercedes came to a halt between turns 11 and 12 (after having completed 11 laps). Rosberg was quickest of all by 0.762s when he became the second car of the day to stop on track all within the opening 90 minutes. Though Button managed to re-emerge from the garage, Rosberg was forced to stop when flames came spitting from the rear of the W04, and his time was over taken quickly. However, as improvements eventually knocked Rosberg down to eighth quickest in the afternoon, Mercedes has announced that a wiring loom fault was in need of fixing and that it would be modified for Wednesday.

As what most fans come to expect, Marussia and Caterham launched their respective 2013 spec cars in the hour before the light at the end of the pit lane went green.

Caterham’s rookie, Giedo van der Garde, completed the day with a respectful time of 1:21.915s (3.054s off the quickest) and completing a full 64 laps. and Marussia’s only confirmed driver, Max Chilton was in their car on the opening day but caused the third red flag in the day after the MR02 ended up in the gravel with a bent right rear suspension. The team responded saying that the issue needs investigating and called time on its running an hour early.

TIMES:

	Driver	Car	Best time	Laps
1.	Jenson Button	McLaren MP4-28	1:18.861	37
2.	Mark Webber	Red Bull RB9	1:19.709	73
3.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus E21	1:19.796	54
4.	Paul di Resta	Force India VJM06	1:20.343	89
5.	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso STR8	1:20.401	70
6.	Felipe Massa	Ferrari F138	1:20.536	64
7.	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber C32	1:20.699	79
8.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes W04	1:20.846	14
9.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams FW34	1:20.864	84
10.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham CT03	1:21.915	64
11.	Max Chilton	Marussia MR02	1:24.176	29