Hamilton leads final F1 test day as the Red Bull lemon runs at snails pace

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top of the times on the final pre-season Formula 1 test day of 2014 in Bahrain. Meanwhile Red Bull's struggles continued with its lemon RB10 that is both slow and unreliable.

Hamilton ended up just 0.02 seconds short of beating Felipe Massa's Sakhir circuit pre-season benchmark from Saturday. Williams Valtteri Bottas was 2nd but stopped on the start-finish straight with a mechanical issue.

If the final test session was any indication, F1 is going to embarrass itself at the season opener in Melbourne. Quite possibly no one will finish because the cars are so unreliable, even the fast ones. If this happens F1 will have real egg on its face.

Sebastian Vettel endured another frustrating day in Red Bull's lemon RB10, suffering what the team described as "a mechanical issue at the front of the car", which sent the world champion off at Turn 1 in the morning.

The German returned to the track in the afternoon, and racked up a total of 77 laps, but at reduced pace. If they try to go too fast the car breaks down.

He wound up ninth over four seconds off Hamilton. They are lost.

Fernando Alonso set Ferrari's fastest time of pre-season to go third fastest, after the F14 T caused one of eight red flags on Sunday when Alonso stopped at Turn 12.

Romain Grosjean's Lotus, Jenson Button's McLaren, and Nico Hulkenberg's Force India all suffered engine failures that curtailed their running early, while clutch issues forced Kamui Kobayashi's Caterham to stop prematurely too.

Lewis Hamilton: This has definitely been the most challenging winter I've experienced and the car is still very much a work in progress, but we've learnt a lot over the course of these last few weeks and overall it's been a good winter of testing for us. There's been an incredible amount of work put in by the team back at the two factories and on track. I have to say a special thanks to the crew here today who had a tough task in front of them but never lost their cool. It was a tough start to the day but they managed to get the car turned around for me to complete some good laps in the afternoon, which was a fantastic effort. There's so much to learn with these new cars; it's just mind-blowing and I don't think anybody can be fully ready for the challenge of this season. But I feel as ready as I can be and I'm looking forward to seeing where we are in Melbourne.

Sebastian Vettel: "We did a lot of laps today so that was useful," said Sebastian. "We tried to do a race distance today; for one reason or another that didn't work out, but in two week's time things should look a little bit different. Obviously it's difficult to know where the car is. It's not just the number of laps you do, but also the type. There are so many different running options, not just with tires and high or low fuel, there are engine options as well – full power, low power etc, so it's impossible to say where we are. We know we have to catch up in a lot of areas, but that said, I'm happy today, we did a lot of laps, we learned a lot and it was a positive end to a tough week here."

Valtteri Bottas: I think our final day of testing was very good, right up to a very unlucky failure just one run before the end. Overall, it was a still a good day as we had no other issues throughout and made a lot of progress with the car set-up. I think with this amount of testing we are as prepared for Melbourne as we can be. The team has done a great job and thank you also to Mercedes-Benz. We still need to work very hard in these next two weeks but I overall I'm happy with how testing has gone for us. As I didn't have the chance to do a quick time on the supersoft tire today, I am looking forward to picking up where we left off when we get to Melbourne.

Nico Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg: "The final day of testing went pretty well. In the end we didn’t do the race simulation, but we did some long runs and signed off a lot of other things on the job list. We didn’t do as many laps as yesterday, but we still made progress and learned some new things. So it’s been two good days for me and I’m feeling pretty satisfied. You always want more time to prepare, but I think we’re in good shape. The car has come a long way since the first Jerez test and we have made progress every day."

Kamui Kobayashi: “106 laps is a good way for us to finish the tests, even though the clutch problem we had in the last hour meant we didn’t have a chance to do any of the performance runs we’d planned for today. However, I’m very happy we were able to have two such good final days in Bahrain as it’s showed that our reliability is good and that could be very important in Australia and for the whole season, especially when you look at how quite a few of the other teams have struggled both here and in Jerez.

“Today we had a very long program, starting in the morning with a number of short runs to work through setup changes and we’ve made good progress in that area. In the afternoon we went onto longer runs, looking at fuel and energy management strategy and tire wear and we have a lot of data to work with on that – again, that will be critical in the races so to have had the chance to start to understand how the car behaves with different modes is very important.

“Next week I have a couple more days in the simulator at the factory and then it’ll be time to go to Australia. I’m obviously excited about getting back to racing and with what we’ve achieved in testing I think it could be a very interesting start to the 2014 season."

Romain Grosjean: “We’re not in an ideal situation. There is a lot of new technology for everyone to understand, but even though we have stopped many times and spent a lot of time in the garage, each time we run the car we are learning something new. We’re all working as hard as we can in Enstone and I’m sure that Renault Sport F1 is doing the same. We now have two weeks to find a lot more performance and reliability."

Max Chilton: “Given that we’ve had a few little issues today, I’m quite encouraged by the 61 laps that we did achieve and the positive note on which we’ve ended the day. It’s a nice way to finish our pre-season testing. The way our day panned out meant that we had a lot to do to play catch-up and maximize the track time that we had left, but the items we have ticked off will be crucial in forming an overall picture for Melbourne. Generally, I think we can be pretty positive for the first race of the season. The new regulations have been a challenge up and down the pit lane and although we have also experienced a few issues along the way, we’ve also made a lot of progress. I don’t want to make any predictions because we won’t really know where we stand until qualifying and the race, but I’m feeling very optimistic as I think we‘ll be in a good position to make the most of our opportunities. My thanks to the Team trackside and back at base. We’ve come a long way since that first day of running in Jerez."

Jean-Eric Vergne: “These past twelve days have been very interesting in many ways. I would describe today as positive and we did some good work, especially in the morning when we got through everything we had planned to do, with everything going smoothly. This afternoon was slightly more complicated, but we still managed to get some mileage in race configuration and we learned a lot. I had a really good feeling from the car today. These winter tests have not been easy, but we are not alone in that. Even if there is no more testing, I know the team can work hard with our partners and fix many of these issues in time for Melbourne. The really positive thing is that I feel I have a good car, so once everything has been sorted out, I am sure we can be strong in the races."

Adrian Sutil: “It was a good morning. We covered everything that we had planned, just in a shorter time frame. Yesterday was unlucky, but it’s better to have a problem here than in Melbourne. I feel much more comfortable after this morning's session. Now we have a lot more data to analyze. Overall we had a tough testing program to go through and we had unexpected problems here and there. However, we don’t get any more tests, so we will take what we have and get the most out of it in Melbourne, and I’m looking forward to that."

Esteban Gutierrez: “Today was really productive. We recovered a lot from what we lost yesterday and the team did a great job. We did a lot of laps and completed the whole program. It’s satisfying to achieve this. Of course we still have quite a few things that we need to work on and sort out before Melbourne. However, I believe that we are going in the right direction. We were able to do a few race simulations, which I found useful. I was able to prepare for the first race and I feel ready for Melbourne."

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