As the teams piled on the mileage (some covering around 100 laps), it was Lewis Hamilton’s opening day at Mercedes that came to an abrupt end due to a brake failure. After just 15 laps, his Mercedes suffered a loss of rear brake pressure and he crashed into the barriers at Dry Sac. He managed to lock up his front wheels to slow down before the gravel trap but the impact with the barrier also damaged the front left corner – the suspension and associated aerodynamic parts.
The team traced the problem to the hydraulic brake line connecting to the right-rear caliper. Eventually, they had to call off the day’s testing while a solution is engineered in time for the next day’s test.
The second quickest time in the day was Paul di Resta in the Force India VJM06. Like Grosjean, the young Scot completed 95 laps before handing the car over to the team’s simulator driver James Rossiter in the afternoon.
Daniel Ricciardo, enjoying his second straight day in the Toro Rosso STR8, came out the third quickest of day two in Jerez.
The busiest driver of the day had to be, by far, the driver with the fourth time, Red Bull’s Mark Webber. Webber completed an astonishing 101 laps in the team’s new RB9, (two more than Nico Hulkenberg managed in the Sauber C32) and setting the fourth fastest time. He was 0.164s clear of Hulkenberg.
Moving down the timing chart, Felipe Massa spent the morning collecting data and his afternoon was filled with three long runs as the team tested different exhaust systems.
Pastor Maldonado continued to gather information in a revised version of the Williams FW34. James Rossiter was tenth for Force India. Giedo van der Garde was 11th for Caterham and Marussia’s new signing Luiz Razia completed 31 laps in his first run in the MR02.
** There were two further red flags in the session (past that of Hamilton’s), Daniel Ricciardo stopped on circuit being only a few minutes into the day. And newly signed Luiz Razia (with Marussia) brought out the last red flag of the morning while stopping on the main straight to cause a short delay as the team set out and recovered the stricken car.
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