Barcelona in-season test: Jolyon Palmer tops Day Two for Lotus

Late run on supersoft tyres puts GP2 champion top; Alex Lynn makes Williams debut

By William Esler

Tuesday 19 May 2015 13:43, UK

Jolyon Palmer stole the headlines on the final day of testing in Barcelona after late run on the supersoft tyres gave the Lotus driver the quickest time of the day.

The GP2 champion posted a 1:26.080 in the final hour to eclipse Mercedes’ Pascal Wehrlein who had led throughout the day.

Palmer racked up 87 laps for Lotus, impressing once more as he continues to push for a race seat in 2016.

The incredible reliability of the Mercedes W06 was on show again in Spain as Wehrlein, who was still feeling under the weather having missed Tuesday with illness, completed 137 laps. His best time of 1:26.497 was over two seconds slower than the pace set by Nico Rosberg on Tuesday.

“The Mercedes Power Unit is unbelievable and the chassis too, with a very good balance,” said Wehrlein.

“I could feel it has changed a bit since I last drove it during winter testing. The team has clearly been working hard and developing it even further. It's definitely a step forward and I've loved every minute of being behind the wheel!"

Switching from Toro Rosso to Red Bull for the second day, Pierre Gasly completed 75 laps and finished third quickest, ahead of Jenson Button who completed a century of laps for McLaren.

However, despite the Woking team heading out on the supersoft tyres, they were unable to match their best lap from pre-season on the soft tyres with Button 1.7 seconds slower than the time set by Kevin Magnussen on Day Three of the final pre-season test.

Button’s day included testing for the upcoming races with low-speed work carried out for Monaco and a low-downforce rear wing experimented with ahead of Canada.

Making his debut for Williams, Alex Lynn was just fractionally behind the McLaren in fifth place after completing 52 laps. It was another day of limited running for Williams after Felipe Massa’s 54 laps on the opening day, but it seems the team were sticking to a run plan rather than suffering any reliability problems.

New Mercedes signing Esteban Ocon was at the wheel of the Force India and was sixth quickest, ahead of Esteban Gutierrez who made his debut for Ferrari and completed 119 laps.

The Mexican ran with many of the upgrades the team had brought to the Spanish Grand Prix, including parts rejected by Kimi Raikkonen ahead of qualifying.

Carlos Sainz was another driver to complete over a century of laps and was seventh fastest for Toro Rosso, with Sauber’s Raffaele Marciello propping up the timesheet.

The Italian driver’s day got off to a bad start with an early off into the gravel at Turn Three which caused a red flag and he finished the day with 75 laps to his name.