FORMULA 1: Lewis Hamilton Abandons Race Due To Illness As Sauber Went Fastest In Barcelona Test

Sauber's Felipe Nasr went fastest, while Lewis Hamilton had to abandon running early on the first day of the Barcelona Formula 1 test due to illness, prompting Mercedes to recall Pascal Wehrlein from Force India. Hamilton completed 11 laps over the first hour and a half of running on the opening day of 2015's second F1 test before stopping running.

"An unplanned stoppage is keeping us off track," said Mercedes in a tweet. "Lewis is feeling unwell and not able to continue driving today."


Mercedes reserve Wehrlein was already present at the test driving for its customer team Force India, which is still running its 2014 car at this test.

GP2 graduate Nasr, who topped the third day of the opening test at Jerez, went fastest just after the morning's mid-point and bettered his time by two-tenths with a one minute 27.307 second run on medium-compound Pirellis half an hour later.

That improvement kept him top by just 0.056s from Daniel Ricciardo, who made a late flourish in the Red Bull to rise up the leaderboard having only completed a number of installation laps until that point.

The RB11 only managed 18 laps in total but its late progress meant its morning was the opposite of McLaren's, which had made a much more promising start to the test before its latest technical issue.

Jenson Button was second quickest for much of the morning in the Honda-powered MP4-30 and, having had his fastest lap taken away, his next-best effort was less than a second slower than Nasr's benchmark by the end.

But an issue with the engine's MGU-K seal meant Button returned to the pits shortly after the morning's halfway mark with 21 laps completed and did not emerge again.

In his absence Pastor Maldonado jumped to third, 0.2 seconds slower than Nasr, despite causing two red flags when his Lotus E23 stopped on track at almost the same point, the second time only moments after re-emerging from the pits.

Max Verstappen backed up Renault's pace (with Red Bull) with the fourth-fastest time in the Toro Rosso, and the 17-year-old was just over a tenth clear of morning pace-setter Kimi Raikkonen, who lost his best time due to corner cutting at the chicane.

Hamilton had seemed in good form ahead of the test, posting a message on Thursday morning suggesting that he was raring to go.


The Monaco-based driver is in Spain for the test having recently returned from a trip to America following his break-up from Nicole Scherzinger, where he enjoyed some time on the beach and attended the NBA All-Star game.