Rookie F1

All of the teams have decamped to Barcelona now and for the first time this season all cars and all drivers will be present, Alonso has taken the car he hopes to lead the rest of the field with for a spin and Williams have launched their car. But Force India have yet to announce their second driver, but with Sutil making a return and Bianchi waiting in the wings after another year as a test driver, Barcelona can make or break their year.

Rosberg and Mercedes must be relieved to be in Barcelona and to leave the troubles of Jerez behind, and although the German finished the day on top it wasn’t without incident. A gearbox problem put a pause on the day but stormed to the top in the afternoon to put Jerez firmly in the past. Close behind him was Räikkönen, and like the German his day wasn’t trouble free when data logging issues limited the number of laps he could complete.

Alonso took to the track much to the jubilation of Spanish fans and clocked up an impressive number of laps to continue showing the great reliability Ferrari  demonstrated in Jerez. Although Vettel was fastest before the break his lead didn’t last but he managed to improve his time nonetheless.

With a brand new car to get to grips with Maldonado was a little off the top times, but the team would have been slightly preoccupied by the FIA ruling against guiding vanes in their exhaust package. Deemed illegal by the FIA, both Williams and Caterham who have a similar design, they are allowed to continue using it in testing but if they were to use it in the race it would be forwarded to the race stewards.

Williams are naturally seeking some clarification on the matter and are adamant that as the vane is made of two parts it should be legal, whereas Caterham’s is not. The issue is that the exhaust can not have an aero effect on performance and therefore the sides of the Coanda channel must not meet, and what Williams and Caterham have done is to push the boundaries. This said Maldonado is pleased with the progress and deems it a ‘step forward’, although he suffered a small water leak.

Ricciardo set the first timed lap of the day and continued to improve at a steady rate throughout the session. Perez spent a large portion of the morning in the garage that the team explained as a ‘lengthy reset’ after aero tests. In the midst of team mate selection di Resta slots himself behind them after spending a day testing prospective new parts.

Gutierrez was the first driver to give the red flag an outing in Barcelona and a empty fuel tank was the cause, and the rest of the day wasn’t easy either. The rookie driver reported that he struggled with tyre degradation and set up. Chilton and Pic rounded up the bottom of the timings, with Pic sparking the second red flag of the day in the afternoon. A gearbox problem ended his day early although it was fixed there wasn’t enough time to get back on track to continue with his programme leaving him with a busy day on Wednesday.