2015 F1 season to again be a Mercedes parade

Rosberg in the unbeatable W06

Mercedes picked up where it left off in 2014 as Nico Rosberg comfortably led the first morning of 2015 Formula 1 pre-season testing at Jerez on Sunday by over 1.5 sec as 2015 is already shaping up to be a Mercedes borefest parade.

The Mercedes F1 W06 was the first car on track when the pits opened, and Rosberg ran more laps than anyone else by some margin as he quickly got down to long-run work proving the new Mercedes is very reliable.

The 2014 F1 runner-up set a best time of a 1m23.106s, putting him 1.5 seconds clear of Daniel Ricciardo by the time most teams stopped for a short break around lunchtime.

Ricciardo completed a series of short runs in the camouflage-liveried Red Bull, but by the afternoon he only had 22 laps to his name and his last run had ended with smoke from the back of the car as the Renault lemon of an engine continues unabated.

Morning Times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m23.106s 80
2. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1m24.641s +1.535s 22
3. Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1m24.804s +1.698s 30
4. Valtteri Bottas Williams 1m25.167s +2.061s 9
5. Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m25.764s +2.658s 9
6. Carlos Sainz Jr Toro Rosso 1m26.081s +2.975s 20
7. Fernando Alonso McLaren 1m40.738s +17.632s 6