Day 2 of pre-season testing in Jerez was a lot more eventful than the first one, where we saw Sebastian Vettel set the fastest pace during timed laps.

The four time F1 World Champion was again fastest on Monday, building on his already encouraging start to his Ferrari career.

Vettel set a new benchmark of 1:20.984s in his Ferrari, clearing the rest of the pack by almost one second – however the German driver remained grounded about the result, saying that “It’s too soon to give a verdict on the true level of this car, especially as we can’t make a comparison with the other teams, who can be running different programmmes. However, I’d say we have a good basis to work from.”

The SF15-T also did a great job with Intermediates as it soon started to rain on the track.

However it was Sauber’s rookie driver Felipe Nasr who provided the biggest surprise of the day, venturing closest to Vettel’s time at 1:21.867s, half a second clear of Williams‘ Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes‘ Lewis Hamilton.

“It was a great day,” said Nasr. “I was able to complete a lot of laps, and I was happy with everything I saw. I was getting used to the systems, the procedures and the characteristics of the car. Now we can start working on the details.”

Lotus got out on the track for the first time with Pastor Maldonado behind the wheel, doing 41 total laps and managing a best time of 1:25.802s.

As for Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat, he didn’t manage to set a time on his first day on the job in the RB11 after damaging the front wing in an early spin. Without a replacement wing in sight, Kvyat had to complete several other runs with no front wing.

Good thing that Red Bull still has plenty of downforce.

Unofficial Day 2 times from Jerez:

1. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:20.984s, 88 laps
2. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:21.867s, 89 laps
3. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:22.319s, 61 laps
4. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:22.490s, 91 laps
5. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:24.167s, 73 laps
6. Pastor Maldonado, Lotus, 1:25.802s, 41 laps
7. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:54.655s, 6 laps
8. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, No time, 18 laps

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