Sebastian Vettel set the fastest time at the second day of F1 testing in Barcelona with the fastest lap of 1:19,673, three tenths of a second faster Bottas on the medium tyres in extremely cold conditions in Spain.
The conditions were very cold at 10 a.m. with only 0.6 ºC, but the sun came out and the track warmed up to 7.8 ºC. Drivers have used wet and intermediate tyres, even though the track was dry because dry tyres at these temperatures can not be warmed up to their working temperature.
Carlos Sainz in Renault and Valtteri Bottas in Mercedes were the first drivers with set times, and it was soon announced that there would not be a lunch break that was supposed to be between 13 and 14 o’clock because the weather conditions could be the most favorable at that time.
Vandoorne in McLaren became the first driver to test the new Pirelli’s hypersoft tires, the softest in F1 2018, and set the fastest time.
But Bottas in Mercedes went faster and beat Vandoorne’s time for 0.055 seconds.
Max Verstappen almost did not go out in the morning of the second day due to the problem with the Red Bull RB14 fuel system, but the Dutchman later drove 67 laps and finished the fourth fastest.
Sebastian Vettel beat Bottas’s best time of 1:20.168 on medium tires, which was the best test time of the testing at that moment, while the German additionally improved on the soft tyres and led the pack with 1:19.673 lap.
In his three attempts on soft tires, Vettel drove two laps under 1:20 (with a cooling laps between them).
Bottas finished second fastest with three tenths behind, but on harder medium tyres while Vandoorne remained third thanks to the fastest lap on the softest hypersoft.
Despite the third time, it was not a good day for McLaren who did not return to the track in the afternoon and Vandoorne had a total of 37 laps, less than Alonso yesterday. McLaren had a problem with a exhaust of their Renault engine which melted some components inside the car.
Sainz was fifth in Renault on the soft tyres, but with a huge gap behind Vettel in Ferrari while Toro Rosso and Honda had another productive day and collected 82 laps. Gasly replaced Hartley and finished sixth fastest, tenth behind Renault.
Kubica and Sirotkin shared responsibilities for Williams, and Pole was three tenths faster with four laps less. Ocon first tested the new Force India VJM11 and finished ninth with 79 laps.
Leclerc tested the new Alfa Romeo Sauber C37 and finished three seconds behind the fastest Vettel, but he did 81 laps (only Vettel and Bottas did more). The last one was Magnussen in Haas who failed to drive a lot of laps, but managed to avoid barriers in the fourth corner where he went into the gravel.
DAY TWO RESULTS
Driver | Team | Tyres | Time | Gap | Laps | |
1. | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | S | 1:19.673 | – | 98 |
2. | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | M | 1:19.976 | 0.303 s | 94 |
3. | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren/Renault | HS | 1:20.325 | 0.652 s | 37 |
4. | Max Verstappen | Red Bull/Renault | M | 1:20.326 | 0.653 s | 67 |
5. | Carlos Sainz | Renault | S | 1:21.212 | 1.539 s | 65 |
6. | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso/Honda | S | 1:21.318 | 1.645 s | 82 |
7. | Robert Kubica | Williams/Mercedes | S | 1:21.495 | 1.822 s | 48 |
8. | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams/Mercedes | S | 1:21.822 | 2.149 s | 52 |
9. | Esteban Ocon | Force India/Mercedes | S | 1:21.841 | 2.168 s | 79 |
10. | Charles Leclerc | Sauber/Ferrari | S | 1:22.721 | 3.048 s | 81 |
11. | Kevin Magnussen | Haas/Ferrari | S | 1:22.727 | 3.054 s | 36 |