Williams show their true pace on day one of third test

Williams have flexed their muscles on day one of the third pre-season test, in Barcelona.

Felipe Massa topped the timesheets with the fastest time of the winter so far on soft tyres, which is a clear indication that they remain the second fastest team on the grid, behind Mercedes.

Massa’s 1:23.500 was 1.3s faster than Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who set his time on the medium tyres, but early calculations put the defending champion at around 0.5s a lap faster.

This is a significant reduction from 2014, and may make Williams genuine challengers to the German manufacturers this season.

Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson came second, just 0.776s off the pace, but he set his time on the faster super-soft tyre, but it was still an impressive day for the Swiss team, who completed over 100 laps.

Marcus Ericsson in the new Sauber C-34

It was a quiet day for both Red Bull and Ferrari, who focused on longer runs, but it is likely that they will do qualifying simulations tomorrow.

McLaren suffered another awful day, as Jenson Button completed just seven laps before a hydraulic leak forced them to finish early.

Mercedes also had a disappointing day, as Hamilton did no running in the afternoon due to a MGU-K failure. Although not a disaster, the team will be concerned with the season so close.

Times from day one:

1 Felipe Massa,  Williams: 1m23.500s (103 laps)
2 Marcus Ericsson, Sauber : 1m24.276s +0.776 (122 laps)
3 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes:  1m24.881s +1.381 (48 laps)
4 Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull: 1m25.947s +2.447 (75 laps)
5 Romain Grosjean, Lotus:  1m26.177s +2.677 (75 laps)
6 Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari:  1m26.327s +2.827 (80 laps)
7 Carlos Sainz Jr,  Toro Rosso:  1m26.962s +3.462 (86 laps)
8 Jenson Button, McLaren:  1m31.479s +7.979 (7 laps)

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