- Silverstone Test - Day Two
Bianchi quickest at second day of Silverstone test
Jules Bianchi set the fastest time on the second day of in-season testing at Silverstone as he stood in for Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari.
Raikkonen was rested from the test after his big accident at the British Grand Prix on Sunday, with development driver Pedro de la Rosa driving on Tuesday and Bianchi taking the wheel on Wednesday. Alongside his race drive with Marussia, Bianchi is a member of Ferrari Driver Academy and completed 89 laps at the wheel of the F14 T, with his best effort of 1:35.262 coming in the afternoon, eclipsing Daniil Kvyat's best time of the morning by 0.282s. The session was ended 20 minutes early when Giedo van der Garde crashed heavily at Copse and damaged the barrier.
"I unfortunately lost the rear of the car and went into the barrier on my second lap when I was pushing," he said. "It was a hard crash, but luckily I am fine."
After set-up changes at lunch, Kevin Magnussen improved to get within 0.049s of Kvyat and by the end of the day had completed a total of 91 laps. Van der Garde improved in the final 30 minutes of the session with a 1:36.327 in the Sauber as he racked up a total of 84 laps.
Lewis Hamilton missed out on most of the morning session after spinning on his sixth lap at Stowe. Hamilton was doing aero work on cold tyres and spun as a result, causing red flags and keeping him in the garage for the rest of the morning. He returned to complete a total of 47 laps by the end of the session.
Williams' Valtteri Bottas was sixth fastest ahead of Marussia's Max Chilton and the Force India of Dani Juncadella. Sebastian Vettel was ninth fastest after spending a day tyre testing for Pirelli over 76 laps. Julian Leal completed just one lap all morning in the Caterham due to a control electronics failure for the MGU-H, but returned to the track in the afternoon to finish the day with 51 laps in total.
Charles Pic was the centre of attention in the morning as he went out on track in a Lotus fitted with low-profile concept tyres from Pirelli. The new look is not likely to feature for another two or three years, but is a working tyre and completed a series of short runs before an issue with the Lotus cut the low-profile tyre test one run short. Pic returned in the afternoon on standard 13-inch tyres to set a best lap of 1:41.906.
Times at close:
1. Jules Bianchi Ferrari 1:35.262 89 laps 2. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:35.544 55 laps 3. Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:35.593 91 laps 4. Geido van der Garde Sauber 1:36.327 84 laps 5. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.680 47 laps 6. Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:37.193 40 laps 7. Max Chilton Marussia 1:37.359 77 laps 8. Daniel Juncadella Force India 1:37.449 52 laps 9. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:39.410 76 laps 10. Charles Pic Lotus 1:41.906 39 laps 11. Julian Leal Caterham 1:42.635 51 laps
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