Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

Oil leak curtails McLaren running

McLaren has been unable to build on Friday's encouraging mileage as an oil leak has brought its penultimate day of testing to an early end.

Having completed of 100 laps on the second day of the final test with Jenson Button at the wheel, McLaren was confident of more mileage on Saturday with Kevin Magnussen driving the MP4-30 in place of the absent Fernando Alonso. Saturday was Magnussen's first taste of the 2015 car having been demoted from race driver at the end of last season.

Following an encouraging morning session which saw Magnussen complete over 30 laps and set the fifth fastest time on the soft tyre, McLaren was slow to run again in the afternoon. When Magnussen did emerge he returned to the pits leaving a trail of oil down the pit lane and the leak proved terminal to end the team's day two hours early after just 39 laps.

Magnussen's best lap from the morning was McLaren's quickest of pre-season so far, but the team requires significant mileage on the final day to help prepare for the opening race in Melbourne. Button will return to the car on Sunday.

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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.