Disappointment for Sahara Force India on second day of test in Barcelona

Sahara Force India saw an early way back to the pits after there were issues with the driveline. Nico Hulkenberg was just in 36 laps at the second Formula One pre-season testing in Barcelona, when the problem occurred.

The Sahara Force India driver managed to set a lap time of 1:23.893, his best of the day. “The day started well with some set-up work and new tyres runs, but we had some downtime in the afternoon, which limited my mileage. It’s a bit frustrating, but we’ve had a pretty good winter so far and it’s nothing to worry about,” he said.

“I’ve got one more day in the car before we travel to Melbourne, so I will try to make the most of it and carry out a full race simulation,” he added

Team’s Chief Engineer Jakob Andreasen also felt that plans went haywire.

“It hasn’t been the most straightforward day as we lost most of the afternoon session with a driveline issue. The plan had been to attempt a race distance, so we will need to reschedule this for tomorrow when Paul (di Resta) is back in the car.”

“Fortunately we had a productive morning when Nico carried out some new tyre appraisals of the hard and medium compounds, and we also ran through our race weekend procedures,” he explained.

Lotus’s Romain Grosjean set the fastest time for the second day running at the final pre-season test with 1:22.614.

Scottish driver, Paul De Resta will be on the track on Sunday for the third test session, before being replaced by Hulkenberg.

Final pre-season test, Barcelona – day two fastest times

1. Romain Grosjean (Swi) Lotus-Renault – 1:22.614
2. Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Toro Rosso-Ferrari – 1:23.126
3. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull-Renault – 1:23.361
4. Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari – 1:23.447
5. Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Caterham-Renault – 1:23.828
6. Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber – 1:23.836
7. Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Force India-Mercedes – 1:23.893
8. Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes – 1:23.978
9. Lewis Hamilton (GB) McLaren-Mercedes – 1:24.111
10. Bruno Senna* (Brz) Williams-Renault – 1:24.925
11. Pastor Maldonado* (Ven) Williams-Renault – 1:25.801

Source: sports.NDTV.com