Vettel stays fastest for Ferrari, problems for Mercedes

Sebastian Vettel stayed fastest by the end of the second day of the second Barcelona test after setting best time for Ferrari this year while Lewis Hamilton completed only 14 laps in the afternoon before he was hit with engine problems.

Vettel set 1:16.841, 1.1 s slower than Bottas last week on the softest C5 Pirelli tyres, and completed 145 laps in the Ferrari SF1000.

Mercedes had a much worse day as Bottas drove 47 laps in the morning due to weather conditions and Hamilton added only 14 laps for the worst day for the world champions in 2020 (61 laps total) due to engine problems.

Hamilton got on track only an hour after the start of the afternoon session, but managed to drive only 14 laps before his engine precautionary turned off after the Turn 5, as he stopped on the track on his way to Turn 7.

That caused the only red flag in the afternoon, after three breaks in the morning, and Hamilton finished last with the fastest lap of 1:22.4 on the C3 tyres.

The second day started in wet conditions, so the drivers went on the track on intermediate tyres, but when the track dried sufficiently they could run on slicks.

Verstappen, Bottas and Vettel all lost control in the Turn 5, Verstappen and Bottas on braking, and Vettel on acceleration, with Verstappen and Vettel causing the second and third red flags respectively.

The first was caused by Giovinazzi in Alfa Romeo, who spun in the Turn 4, hit the wall with his rear wing and finished the first part of the day with only 16 laps and the penultimate fastest time. The Italian managed to get back into the garage, but, like Vettel, picked up a lot of gravel, which had to be cleaned by marshals.

Stroll continued with setting a good laptimes in Racing Point in this year’s tests – today he was the third fastest, 0.277 s behind Vettel on the harder C3 tyres – and between him and Vettel was Gasly in AlphaTauri, with 1:17.066 on C5 tyres this afternoon session.

Latifi completed 160 laps, most of all drivers, after problems with the Mercedes engine yesterday, finishing in an encouraging third place for Williams, 0.472 s behind Vettel on the harder tyre.

Norris was fifth for McLaren, 0.260 seconds behind Latifi, but with two steps harder C2 tyres, while Verstappen finished sixth, also on the C2 compound, in a heavily revised RB16 with a new aero package.

Bottas and Ocon finished seventh and eighth fastest after driving only in the morning while Magnussen was ninth for Haas with 111 laps for the VF-20.

Albon was six-tenths slower than Verstappen on the C2 tyres, finishing 10th ahead of Ricciardo, who took R.S.20 from Ocon in the afternoon and finished 11th, four-tenths behind his team-mate. Neither Red Bull nor Renault managed to complete 100 laps today.

Giovinazzi was penultimate to Alfa Romeo with 92 laps, and the last was Hamilton with the least number of laps.

The last day of preseason testing is scheduled for tomorrow.

DAY 2 TEST 2 RESULTS