Pirelli test hit by weather, highlights desire for Bahrain

Pirelli's second day of testing in Barcelona was again hit by poor weather on Thursday, with Paul Hembery saying it shows why it wants to test in Bahrain in pre-season.

The tyre manufacturer has 25 days of testing 2017 tyres with mule cars this year, working with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull ahead of a final one-day test using all three teams after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The latest test was a two-day schedule with Mercedes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday and Thursday.

With Nico Rosberg completing 60 laps on day one as rain hit in the afternoon, further cool conditions on day two saw Pascal Wehrlein - standing in for the injured Lewis Hamilton - carry out just 31 further laps before more rain ended the test.

Pirelli says it still carried out some learning with the intermediate tyre on Thursday but Hembery says the conditions highlight why it is so keen to test in Bahrain in February next year.

“Obviously the weather hindered progress to some extent both today and yesterday, as is not entirely unexpected at this time of year in Europe," Hembery said. "The same can apply to the early part of next year, which is why we are in favour of some guaranteed warm weather testing in 2017, before the season gets underway.”

Pirelli has requested pre-season testing takes place in Bahrain to ensure dry and warm conditions to test the new tyres, with the move gaining support from Mercedes but opposition from many other teams concerned about costs.

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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.