F1: Jerez test recap

Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari 1-2 in the first Formula 1 pre-season test of 2015 at Jerez, ahead of new teammate Sebastian Vettel.

The Scuderia's most recent world championship winner pipped Vettel's best from earlier in the week on the final afternoon of testing, going one tenth of a second faster on soft tires than Vettel managed on mediums on the second day.

Ferrari topped three of the four days of the test, with its engine customer Sauber preventing a whitewash courtesy of Felipe Nasr leading the third day.

Jerez test reports

Sun: Vettel leads opening day

Mon: Vettel fastest again before rain

Tues: Nasr puts Sauber on top

Wed: Raikkonen ends week on top

Sauber was at the sharp end every day, as both Nasr and Marcus Ericsson were given soft-tire runs that resulted in the C34 always featuring in the top two of the standings.

The Swiss cars were split in the overall standings by Nico Rosberg, whose Mercedes team caught the eye more for its mileage over the course of the week than it did for its speed.

Rosberg's total of 308 laps was one shy of the number he and Lewis Hamilton managed combined at the first test in 2014, and Hamilton, despite suffering a water leak on day two and bringing out a red flag for a spin on day four, was still second in the mileage ranking, 100 laps behind his teammate.

TOUGH WEEK FOR McLAREN AND RED BULL

Ferrari attempted to play down the Scuderia's performance this week, citing that the other big hitters were either sandbagging or in trouble on the engine front.

McLaren-Honda naturally grabbed plenty of headlines, although most of them were for the wrong reasons. Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button managed six laps each on the first two days, but the project gained some momentum (and more mileage) by the end of the test.

Still, Alonso's second day was curtailed by a water leak, while an oil-fill miscalculation and a fuel pump problem prevented Button from having much more joy on the final day.

Honda's troubles allowed Renault to fly under the radar for the early part of the test, as Red Bull was blighted by engine problems and Toro Rosso limited its stint lengths to give rookies Carlos Sainz Jr. and Max Verstappen useful mileage.

Red Bull ended the test only ahead of McLaren in terms of laps completed with 166, while Daniil Kvyat also suffered the embarrassment of having to run without a front wing on day two after damaging the only one the team had.

Elsewhere in the pitlane a calmly confident Williams had a quiet week that included a few long spells in the garage, while Lotus joined the test a day late, and then finished a few hours early on Wednesday due to a power unit problem with new supplier Mercedes.

COMPLETE TEST DATA

Originally on Autosport.com