Bianchi showed off in the rain

Jules Bianchi took part in the most complicated test day of the week on the Catalunya circuit. The teams had to deal with changing conditions and particularly cold temperatures which pushed several drivers to make mistakes. The resident of the Ferrari Driver Academy was still able to complete 61 laps without making any errors and thus ended the day with the fourth fastest time of the session (1'25"732) 2"4 behind the reference time of Lewis Hamilton. “It was good to come back with the team and test the car in all conditions with a dry and wet track, it gave me more experience”, declared the contender for the second wheel opposite Adrian Sutil. “We did most of our program in the dry in the morning and worked on the aero in the afternoon when the track was wet. We weren't able to do long stints as we had planned, but we were still able to achieve many things. »

Force India was in any case satisfied with the work accomplished by Jules Bianchi who ended his day without leaving the track. Vijay Mallya's team could formalize its second driver in the coming days, but the Indian team does not wish to give the slightest clue about its decision. “The changeable weather didn't help complete many tasks, but it was helpful to have Jules operating on dry, intermediate and wet tires at different times of the day,” said chief engineer Jakob Andreasen. “But with a track that was constantly evolving, it was complicated to make comparisons from one relay to the next. The cool track temperatures, which were 6°C, were also not representative of the conditions we will have in future races. In any case, Jules did a good job with us again and attacked despite the wet conditions. We are satisfied with the reliability and performance after these tests and we know what we have to do next week to be ready for Melbourne. »

Results ? Day 4 Barcelona

1/ Lewis Hamilton? Mercedes ? 1'23"282? 52 rounds
2/ Jenson Button? McLaren ? 1'23 »633 (+0 »351)? 70 rounds
3/ Jean-Eric Vergne? Toro Rosso ? 1'24 »071 – (+0 »789) ? 80 rounds
4/ Jules Bianchi? Force India? 1'25"732 (+2"450)? 61 rounds
5/ Esteban Gutiérrez? Sauber? 1'26"239 (+2"957)? 96 rounds
6/ Giedo van der Garde? Caterham? 1’27”429 (+4”147)? 50 rounds
7/ Felipe Massa? Ferrari? 1'27 »563 (+4 »281)? 80 rounds
8/ Mark Webber? Red Bull ? 1'27 »616 (+4 »334)? 64 rounds
9/ Max Chilton? Marussia? 1'29"902 (+6"620)? 51 rounds
10 / Romain Grosjean ? Lotus – 1’34”800 (+11”518)? 41 rounds
11 / Valtteri Bottas ? Williams ? 23 rounds
12/ Pastor Maldonado? Williams? 13 rounds