McLaren-Honda driver Jenson Button was the quickest on the opening morning of the first Formula 1 in-season test day at the Circuit de Catalunya on Tuesday.
Button finished only one-hundredth of a second ahead of the Scuderia Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel with a time of 1m 23.753s. The Maranello-based outfit chose to run with tyres that were used in Sunday’s race as they focused on resolving its Spanish Grand Prix qualifying issues.
Nico Rosberg was back behind the wheel for the first time since the accident that took both Mercedes AMG Petronas drivers out of the race, and set a third fastest lap time of 1m 25.099s, finishing ahead of the Williams Martini Racing of Alex Lynn. Lynn tested a double decker wing for the Grove outfit, with the Briton setting a fastest lap time of 1m26.071s to finish fourth, only 0.015s ahead of Daniel Ricciardo.
The Red Bull Racing driver ran the RB12 with an upgraded Renault engine to finish ahead of the Manor Racing of Pascal Wehrlein. Esteban Ocon set the seventh fastest lap time of 1m 26.530s to finish ahead of Romain Grosjean.
For Pierre Gasly, this was his first 2016 Formula 1 outing with Scuderia Toro Rosso, he ended the morning session in ninth place ahead of Alfonso Celis Jr in the Sahara Force India car.
2016 Formula 1 in-season test – Barcelona – Day 1 – AM
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