Maldonado: "We don't have a lot of time"

Speaking to reporters at the end of the day in Catalunya, Pastor Maldonado, who wheeled his lotus to the top of the charts in the first day of testing at the Spanish track said the team is still at that stage where they are checking systems on the car.

"We are still learning but we don’t have a lot of time to think about it and we have to react soon to be ready for the first race," he said.

"We started the day with a bit of problems, we have been solving them throughout the day, and in the afternoon it was a better car."

Both Lotus drivers admitted last season that the Lotus was unpredictable on track, but Maldonado says that feeling is already a thing of the past.

"I have much more confidence in the car. As I mentioned before, we need to keep working on the setup in some particular areas of the car, but there is a much better feel."

As for the team topping the times, Maldonado didn't want to read into it too far, citing fuel loads and tyre selection as the major determining factor in the days quick times.

"There are teams who didnt put on soft tyres. We don’t know all the other teams for their level of fuel. What we know is we were doing long runs, around 10-12 lap runs," Maldonado said.