After Max Chilton and Marussia surprised the paddock by topping the times on day one, it was the turn of Pastor Maldonado and Lotus to end day two quickest. The Venezuelan set a best time on the supersoft Pirelli tyre of 1m24.871s to beat Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg into second place by almost a second, though the German’s time was set on the medium tyre compound.
Kimi Raikkonen put his troubles from day one to finish the second day third quickest, completing 93 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya in his Ferrari, with his best time coming on the Pirelli soft tyre. Esteban Gutierrez made some progress for the Sauber team with the fourth best time. Sauber have yet to score a point in 2014, with Caterham and Marussia the only other teams to have not finished in the top ten.
Scots lady Susie Wolff had her first day in the 2014 Williams F1 car as she prepares herself for her maiden free practice session at Silverstone in July. She completed 55 laps and a late run with the soft tyres saw her finish fifth fastest, but caused a red flag period in the morning session when she spun into the turn ten gravel trap.
Jules Bianchi was another to put in their best time towards the end of the day to end up sixth fastest for Marussia after being sidelined for part of the day due to a mechanical issue. Likewise, four-time World Drivers Champion Sebastian Vettel started his day late, but ultimately completed 72 laps in his Red Bull and set the seventh best time of the day on the medium tyres.
Daniel Juncadella was eighth fastest in the Sahara Force India, with his best time being set on a set of Prototype tyres, but he spun into the gravel twice during the day causing red flags. The Spaniard was one of the two drivers testing for Pirelli during the day, along with Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne of McLaren. The ART Grand Prix GP2 driver was having his first run in an F1 car, and did 135 laps of the circuit during the day.
Russian Daniil Kvyat only managed 21 laps as his Toro Rosso car struggled with mechanical issues, twice stopping on track causing more red flags to fly.
Caterham were absent from proceedings as the damage caused to the chassis by Kamui Kobayashi’s late crash on day one was too bad to repair, meaning test driver Robin Frijns, who had been scheduled to test on day two, missed out on running.
