Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel has sent an early season warning to double world champions Mercedes by clocking the fastest time on his first day of testing with Ferrari in Jerez.
The German was the first man out on the track on Sunday, even sending a message by overtaking Nico Rosberg in the pit lane on the way out for his first lap in the SF15-T Ferrari.
It wasn’t until well into the afternoon that he surpassed Rosberg on the track, though, as he posted a best time of 1min 22.690secs during his 60 laps.
Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo, who has taken over from Vettel as Red Bull’s top dog, went fourth fastest and completed 35 laps.
“So the first impressions are good,” Ricciardo, who claimed the only three races not won by the Mercedes duo of Rosberg and world champion Lewis Hamilton last season, said.
“We’ll get a few more laps over the next few days, but so far everything seems pretty encouraging.
“We didn’t do a whole lot of laps but definitely more than at this test last year. In general everything is behaving as it should.”
Vettel’s positive opening day was in stark contrast to his disastrous test in Jerez during a troubled final season with Red Bull last year when he lodged just 11 laps over two days.
It was also a good day for Sauber as Markus Ericsson was surprisingly also faster than Rosberg.
However, the Mercedes engines were still dominant when it came to time out on the track as Rosberg racked up 157 laps and last season’s surprise package Valteri Bottas completed 73.
The biggest strugglers on the opening day of the four-day session in southern Spain were McLaren as their new Honda-powered MP4-30 could only manage six laps.
It was particularly disappointing for the huge numbers of Spanish fans who had turned out to see Fernando Alonso on his return to McLaren.
The two-time world champion was also way off the pace during his brief stint on the track, trailing over 18 seconds behind the time set by Vettel.
The test in Jerez will be followed by two more in Barcelona later this month ahead of the new season, which starts in Melbourne on 15 March.
