Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Nasr fastest as new Force India appears

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Felipe Nasr set the fastest time of the Friday morning session at the final test at the Circuit de Catalunya as Force India ran its 2015 car for the first time.

While it was Sebastian Vettel and Nico Rosberg who topped the times for the majority of the day Nasr went fastest in the final half hour with a soft tyre lap, posting a 1:24.071 on the third timed lap of his run having already gone top at the first attempt.

The lap time marked another encouraging morning for Sauber as Nasr completed 59 laps following Thursday’s race simulation which left Marcus Ericsson pleased with the consistency of the C34.

At the other end of the timing screen was the new Force India as Nico Hulkenberg put the first laps on the VJM08. The team had been planning to run for the first time this afternoon but managed to get the car build completed early enough to allow five laps in the final hour, with Hulkenberg setting a time seven seconds off the pace.

Rosberg ended the session second fastest after improving his personal best time on the medium tyre. Friday already marks an improvement for Mercedes with Rosberg having clocked up 65 laps, while Lewis Hamilton only managed 48 on Thursday before his running was ended by an MGU-K failure.

McLaren was another team to bounce back from disappointment on Friday as it enjoyed its most encouraging morning of pre-season testing so far. Jenson Button was back behind the wheel of the MP4-30 and completed 44 laps - more than he has managed in a complete day so far this pre-season - and to finally give the car some more consistent running after only seven laps were possible yesterday.

Vettel was third in the morning having completed almost 70 laps, with his best time also coming on the soft tyre. The Ferrari was carrying a big aero sensor in front of the rear wheels during the first few runs, with the team also focusing on the impact of updates on the floor and diffuser.

Fourth quickest was Valtteri Bottas in the Williams, ahead of Max Verstappen who enjoyed the most productive morning as he completed 78 laps in the updated Toro Rosso. Verstappen continued the team’s work analysing new parts, with flo-viz paint on the rear of the engine cover during the session.

Pastor Maldonado was sixth fastest for Lotus ahead of Button, Daniil Kvyat - who carried out a number of pit stops and failed to set a time in the opening three hours of the session - and Hulkenberg.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.