Williams Barcelona Test - 01 Mar 2016 Day One

Driver: Valtteri Bottas
Chassis / Engine: FW38-02 / PU106C Hybrid
Location: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, 4.655km
Weather: Warm and Dry
Maximum air & track temps: 20ºC / 29ºC

The Williams Martini team would return to the Barcelona track for the second four day test in the lead up to the opening race in Australia. The first test had seen the Williams team focus on reliability as well as general aero and setup work. Now this last test would see teams look at outright pace. On a dry but cold morning Valtteri Bottas would take to the track quickly with the start of the days test. Valtteri would complete an installation lap. Valtteri would return to the track but would not set a time. The first quick lap would come from Magnussen with a 1m:27.891, running on the medium tyre.

With nearly an hour completed Valtteri had yet to set a time. The team had fitted aero testing devices to his car as they started a morning of aero and tyre work. Valtteri was running on the unmarked prototype Pirelli tyre. But after this initial run Valtteri would pit and come out on mediums and would set a 1m:25.682 to be quickest with Kvyat second. Valtteri would pit after his medium tyre run. With an hour and a half completed in the morning Valtteri had completed nineteen laps, prior to pitting again.

Rosberg would go quickest with a 1m:24.449 but Verstappen would go quicker with a 1m:25.356. Valtteri would return to the track setting a best first sector but would end with a 1m:26.1 with his times dropping away. Valtteri would continue a longer run setting times in the 1m:27s. He would again pit while Raikkonen would go quickest with a 1m:24.907. Valtteri had complete twenty nine laps and would be back out again again improving in the first sector, finishing with a 1m:25.263 to be second. Valtteri had now completed thirty nine laps. Rosberg would return to the top of the times with a 1m:24.329, still on the medium tyre. Rosberg would take to the track on soft tyres and would set a 1m:23.022 to be fastest by close to two seconds.

Rosberg's time was around two tenths shy of the best time from the first test, that of Vettel's 1m22.8s on the ultrasoft tyres. Valtteri would return to the track and would set a 1m:25.255 to slightly improve on his previous best. He would continue on his longer run having completed fity one laps as he moved into the last hour before lunch. With a red flag just prior to lunch Valtteri would pit having completed fifty nine laps.

With the start of the afternoon session it would take a while before Valtteri would return to the track. But the session would be red flagged when Raikkonen would stop out on the track. Valtteri had completed seventy six laps at this point as the session restarted having looked at a longer run. Valtteri would return to the track after the restart this time running on the hard tyre. He would set a new personal best in the first sector despite running on the harder tyre. Valtteri would move up to second with a 1m:23.785 having changed to the soft tyre. This would put 0.7 behind Rosberg while Valtteri's time was almost the same as Ferrari had set on the soft tyre the week before.

Valtteri would complete a short un again on the soft tyre improving with a 1m:23.572. His next run would be on the ultrasoft tyre for the first time and he would set a 1m:23.229, only improving by 0.5 which was far off what one would expect on the ultrasoft tyre. After this run Valtteri would return running on the soft tyre running in the 1m:28s. With the end of the day Valtteri would complete one hundred and twenty three laps and finish second to Rosberg.

Rod Nelson, Chief Test & Support Engineer:
Today was a very good day for us. The car ran faultlessly. We did lots of quite significant tests throughout the day as well as a bit of a qualifying simulation. We managed to get through our planned programme without any major problems, so overall we are really pleased.

Valtteri Bottas:
It was a good day today. We managed to run without any major issues with the car. It was very interesting discovering more about the FW38 and what kind of set-ups work for this car. I think we managed to make progress. We did some short runs today which I really enjoyed. I still agree with what I said last week – we have improved in the areas where we were weak last year. I am looking forward to tomorrow and continuing testing.

Driver 		  Team 	    	   	Best Time  Best / 
		   				   Total Laps
1.  N. Rosberg	  Mercedes AMG F1 Team	1:23.022   67 / 82
2.  V. Bottas	  Williams Martini	1:23.229   89 / 123
3.  F. Alonso	  McLaren		1:24.735   81 / 93
4.  K. Raikkonen  Ferrari		1:24.836   36 / 72
5.  D. Kvyat	  Red Bull Racing	1:25.049   50 / 69
6.  L. Hamilton	  Mercedes AMG F1 Team	1:25.051   73 / 90
7.  M. Verstappen Toro Rosso		1:25.176   141 / 144
8.  N. Hulkenberg Force India F1 Team	1:25.336   120 / 121
9.  F. Nasr	  Sauber F1 Team	1:25.493   99 / 103
10. K. Magnussen  Renault Sport F1 Team	1:25.760   74 / 119
11. E. Gutierrez  Haas F1 Team		1.26.661   12 / 23
12. R. Haryanto	  Manor F1 Team		1:27.625   42 / 45