Mercedes in the ascendancy

The strongest team is Mercedes with teams utilising the Mercedes-Benz PU106A Hybrid power unit making up four of the top six teams in total distance covered during testing.

Ferrari power is next up with the Maranello team and Sauber, both slotting into the top six.

Problems for the Red Bull team and others using the Renault Sport Energy F1-2014 unit continue although Renault’s Rob White is insistent that the French engine manufacturer is going in the right direction and making good progress.

Whether those teams using the company’s power unit would agree is another matter, as Caterham, Lotus, Red Bull and Torro Rosso languish at the bottom of the distance table.

The reigning world champions, have only managed 720.8km in total which pales next to the Mercedes total of 3 073km over the two test sessions.

The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg set the fastest time of the week and proved that the new power units may not be as slow as some are predicting.

The German’s time was just 0.9 seconds off his pole position time last year and it’s still early days. This adds weight to a statement made during a visit to Maranello when an engineer said that he believes lap records will tumble within the first two years of the new power trains introduction.

Rosberg’s team mate Lewis Hamilton was second quickest with the Mercedes powered McLarens of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button filling the next two positions on the time sheets.

The Force India of Adrian Sutil, also Mercedes powered, was next up with Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen just behind although 3 seconds behind Rosberg.

Tomorrow the third and final test session starts, once again at the Bahrain circuit and with only a little over two weeks to the first race in Melbourne it is going to be a very critical time for those on Renault power.

Bernie Ecclestone has won his case in the British High Court, but the judge’s summation does not bode well for the F1 supremo.

Justice Newey dismissed the claim against Ecclestone but concluded that he had paid a “bribe” and this was part of the “corrupt agreement” with Gerhard Gribkowsky, the German banker who is serving an eight and a half year prison sentence for receiving the bribe.

Justice Newey also described Ecclestone as “not reliable or truthful”.