Rookie F1

And so begins the foray into the 2013 season, and although no one was given a trophy there was still the chance to finish on top. But this being the first day in the almost all new cars (Williams have brought a revised 2012 spec car with them) there have been a few teething problems.

Despite the low lap count Button was almost a second clear of the rest of the field, it was an early fuel pump problem (new design) that forced him to stop on track and bring out the red flags. But clearly he found his groove in spite of the problems and took the first blood.

Webber was first to take the RB9 for a spin, an evolution of the championship winning car from 2012 he had a incident-free day and completed a healthy number of laps, but said the car felt ‘understeery’ and that was something the team would have to work on. But fresh out of the box the purple paint looks to have done its job.

Grosjean, di Resta, Ricciardo and Massa got down to business and continued working with their 2012 teams for the season ahead. While the one half of the new Sauber line up Hulkenberg got his first taste of the great looking C32.

Rosberg on the other hand completed the least number of laps due to an electrical problem that ended his day early, but the German took it on the chin and relegated it to typical testing issues. Maldonado was the only driver not to have a true 2013 car under his power, but his altered 2012 car kept him just ahead of the two rookies.

Van der Garde took to the Jerez circuit in his fresh out of the box Caterham and was just over a second shy of Maldonado’s time. But Chilton’s first outing came to an abrupt halt when a suspension problem sent him through the gravel at the hairpin with just 29 laps under his belt.