Formula 1

Pascal Wehrlein ends Abu Dhabi test on top

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Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein topped the second and final day of the Abu Dhabi test on his first official test for the team, while for the second day running the McLaren-Honda team endured a very tough day.

Wehrlein, the youngest race winner in DTM history, set the pace early in the day, and ultimately set the best time of the whole test in the afternoon, with his 1:42.624s lap beating the day one pace of Williams Martini Racing’s Valtteri Bottas by 0.772s.

GP2 Series race winner Raffaele Marciello also got beneath Bottas’ time on day two, with the Italian setting a time of 1:43.208s, after replacing Kimi Raikkonen in the Scuderia Ferrari team.

Max Verstappen had a better day two for Scuderia Toro Rosso, with the Dutchman running 78 laps to finish third fastest, while Marcus Ericsson had his second day in the Sauber F1 Team, and set the fourth best time of the day and was the busiest driver of the day, completing 112 laps.

Will Stevens was fifth on what could be the Caterham F1 Team’s final F1 test, with the deadline on finding a buyer for the team looming large. His running was cut short after 76 laps with a suspected fuel leak.

Richard Goddard was sixth for the Sahara Force India team, with the FIA European Formula 3 Championship driver completing 89 laps on his first F1 test. He beat fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Infiniti Red Bull Racing whose day was also ended early with a mechanical issue on his RB10.

Felipe Nasr was eighth on his final day as a Williams driver, with GP3 Series champion Alex Lynn ninth for the Lotus F1 Team after taking over the car from European Formula 3 Champion Esteban Ocon for the afternoon session; Ocon finished tenth.

After only completing three laps on Tuesday, the McLaren team could only manage two laps on Wednesday, with more electrical issues affected the Honda-powered machine. Stoffel Vandoorne was forced to miss the morning session completely, and then ground to a halt during his second lap in the afternoon.

Abu Dhabi Post-Season Test Day 2 Times

POS DRIVER NAT TEAM TIME
1 Pascal Wehrlein GER Mercedes 1:42.624
2 Raffaele Marciello ITA Ferrari 1:43.208
3 Max Verstappen NED Toro Rosso-Renault 1:43.763
4 Marcus Ericsson SWE Sauber-Ferrari 1:44.551
5 Will Stevens GBR Caterham-Renault 1:44.888
6 Richard Goddard AUS Force India-Mercedes 1:44.944
7 Daniel Ricciardo AUS Red Bull-Renault 1:45.151
8 Felipe Nasr BRZ Williams-Mercedes 1:45.937
9 Alex Lynn GBR Lotus-Renault 1:46.168
10 Esteban Ocon FRA Lotus-Renault 1:47.013
11 Stoffel Vandoorne BEL McLaren-Honda No Time
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