Pascal Wehrlein concludes 2014 on top

The German Pascal Wehrlein made a point of placing his Mercedes W05 Hybrid at the head of the final runs in 2014. McLaren is stuck again.

Published on 26/11/2014 à 15:35

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As in the first session this morning, it was the German Pascal Wehrlein who showed the most enthusiasm on the Yas Marina Circuit track. The pilot of the Mercedes W05 Hybrid leaves Abu Dhabi with the best cumulative time over the two days of testing, with a reference time established in 1’42″624, largely beating the performance of the Finn Valtteri Bottas accomplished yesterday.

Behind the driver engaged in DTM in 2014, we find the Italian Raffaele Marciello and his Ferrari F14 T and the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso). The Swede Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) leads a trio of drivers grouped in four tenths with the Briton Will Stevens and the Australian Richard Goddard (Force India). Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) and Felipe Nasr (Williams) follow in seventh and eighth position, and are ahead of the Lotus drivers, Alex Lynn, recent GP3 champion, who took over from the French Esteban Ocon, on the track this morning. Ocon will return to the Yas Marina Circuit tomorrow, at the wheel of the car from DAMS in GP2 this time.

Stoffel Vandoorne completes the ranking of these tests, but the McLaren-Honda MP4-29H/1X1 was only able to complete a little more than one lap before experiencing further damage forcing it to stop, after electrical problems this morning. A difficult first track experience for the Anglo-Japanese duo, but expected by Eric Boullier. Woking's youthful setbacks are similar to those encountered last February in Jerez by several teams, but time is currently much less limited for Ron Dennis' men.

Ranking Day 2:

1. Pascal Wehrlein (Mercedes) 1’42″624 – 96 laps
2. Raffaele Marciello (Ferrari) 1’43″208 – 91 laps
3. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) 1’45″763 – 76 laps
4. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) 1’44″551 – 112 laps
5. Will Stevens (Caterham) 1’44″888 – 76 laps
6. Richard Goddard (Force India) 1’44″944 – 89 laps
7. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1’45″151? 88 rounds
8. Felipe Nasr (Williams) 1’45″937 – 83 laps
9. A. Lynn (Lotus) 1’46″168? 52 rounds
10. Esteban Ocon (Lotus) 1’47″013 – 34 laps
11. S. Vandoorne (McLaren) No time? 2 rounds