McLaren-Honda suffers disaster debut

McLaren have had a disappointing start to their new relationship with Honda, after they completed just five laps across the two day test in Abu Dhabi.

The debut of the Honda engine has been widely anticipated, but electrical and fuel/data exchange issues has severely limited it’s running.

On Tuesday driver Stoffel Vandoorne managed three laps, while the car stopped on just its second lap today. The team say they are not concerned and say that the key aim of the test was to complete system checks, while also getting used to working with Honda again.

Team boss Eric Boullier has reasserted his belief that the potential of the car is “huge”.

Yas Marina Circuit

The other nine teams had a successful couple of days with Mercedes, once again, topping the time sheets in a 1:42.624s, with reserve driver Pascal Wehrlein at the wheel

He said: “I really enjoyed today; it was a great day. It’s a fantastic racing car; it’s good to see myself quickest but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter as everyone has a different test programme.”

The second day of testing saw many of the established racers who competed on day one, such as Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen, move aside for younger drivers.

Ferrari’s Raffaele Marciello finished just 0.5s behind Wehlein and 0.5s ahead of Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen, who completed a stead 78 laps after putting the car into the barriers on day one.

Marcus Ericsson of Sauber completed the most laps, 112, and came fourth. Daniel Ricciardo, who the most experienced driver on the grid, came seventh.

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