Driver: Pastor Maldonado
Chassis / engine: FW35-01 / RS27-5409/3
Location: Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona 4.655km
Objectives: Tyre testing and aero evaluations
Weather: Cloudy with some rain, dry in the afternoon
Air & track temps: 7-11ºC / 6-13ºC

On a day that would start cold and wet the Williams F1 team would prepare the FW35 for Pastor Maldonado to conduct the days testing at the Circuit de Catalunya. Pastor would complete his installation lap running on wet tyres and the team would wait to see if the track conditions would improve. It would not be until 10:30 before Pastor took to the track while it would be Rosberg who was now fastest with a 1m:40.940. After three timed laps the quickest being 1m:45.285 Pastor would pit. After a short stop Pastor would return and on his second lap would set a 1m:41.898 to be third behind Rosberg and Alonso. He would complete two slower laps prior to pitting having completed thirteen laps.

As the conditions improved down came the lap times with Ricciardo going fastest with a 1m:39.615 from Button and Rosberg. After a lengthy break Pastor would return this time running on the super soft tyres. He would set lap times ranging from 1m:33s to 1m:30.615 prior to pitting. After a shorter break Pastor would return to what was a dry track this time for a longer run. He would set a 1m:29.132 in a run of fourteen laps on medium tyres. Most of his lap times were in the 1m:31s. At this time the quickest driver was Button with a 1m:25.936 as the teams stopped for the midday break.

After the break Pastor would return and complete one slow lap pitting briefly and then return for a further series of what were slow laps compared to the times that were been set at this time. Quickest at this time was Sutil in the Force India with a 1m:24.215. Pastor would try various front wings as the team tried to recover lost time from yesterday in terms of aerodynamic testing. Pastor would return to the track to complete five timed laps with a best of 1m:29.260 having completed fifty two laps. Fastest at this time was Button with a 1m:23.924. After a quick drink Pastor would return to his car with an hour and a half remaining in the day. Now it was Grosjean's turn to go fastest with a 1m:22.716.

As the day drew to a close Pastor would complete a series of single lap runs with times down in the 1m:25s and on his sixty seventh lap he would set a 1m:23.628 to be third having completed sixty eight laps. But with half an hour remaining the rain would return seeing only a few drivers on the track. Pastor would join them with his first lap a 1m:42.611 but his run would be stopped by another red flag with a Caterham stopped out on the track. Pastor had completed seventy two laps. Despite there only been a few minutes remaining Pastor would return to the track for one last run.

Mike Coughlan, Technical Director: This morning was effected by rain, but this afternoon we managed to get some running in to start working through our aero evaluation work which we had planned for this test. This afternoon we also did a standard fuel run-out test to check against our data; the results were as expected. We now hope to complete some further dry running as we make our final preparations before Australia.

Pastor Maldonado: We didn’t manage to complete our entire programme because of the rain today, but we still did 75 laps with the track improving towards the end of the afternoon. I had a good feeling in the car but we still have things we can improve. This afternoon we were able to complete some aero evaluations, with particular focus on trying some different front wings. We now have enough data to make some decisions on that, so I’m looking forward to getting some dry running in over the weekend.

The Williams F1 Team will be back on track tomorrow, Saturday 2 March, with Pastor Maldonado driving in the morning session and Valtteri Bottas driving the afternoon session for the third day of the test.