The Williams of Valtteri Bottas has set the fastest time on the second day of the second Pre-season tests at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Day two of the second test saw Bottas show of the pace of the Williams, with a 1.23.661 set on the supersoft tyres. The time is the fifth fastest seen in the pre-season tests so far, and is once again another positive sign from the team as the strive to keep a hold of third place in the championship, and close the gap to Ferrari and Mercedes. Once again Mercedes highlighted their pace and reliability record. Lewis Hamilton was only 0.361 seconds off of Bottas’ time, a 1.23.622 set on the soft tyre. Hamilton managed 73 laps in the car in the morning before handing over to his team mate Nico Rosberg. Rosberg completed a race simulation. And added another 91 laps onto Hamilton’s total for the day.
Elsewhere McLaren had another positive day, with Jenson Button behind the wheel. The team managed to post the fifth fastest time of the day, a 1.25.183 set on the soft tyre. And Button was able to complete 121 laps in the car today. Considering the place they were in this time last year, this seems to be a huge step forward for not only McLaren but the Honda power unit too. It was also a great day for Renault, who had struggled at the first test this year. Kevin Magnussen was able to clock the third fastest time of the day, a 1.23.933 on supersoft tyres, as well as completing 126 laps.
Ferrari had a better run today after the car was stuck in eighth gear yesterday. Sebastian Vettel seemed to be working with the team on the long race pace of the car, as well as the reliability of it. He managed to get the fourth fastest time of the day, a 1.24.611 on medium tyres while completing 151 laps.
However it was not such a smooth day for Ferrari’s customer teams, a multitude of issues and testing gremlins saw Marcus Ericsson only complete 55 laps in his Sauber. He clocked the slowest time of the day too, a 1.27.862 on the medium tyre. It was an even bigger disaster for Haas. As the team managed only 1 lap today with Esteban Gutierrez, and consequently failed to even set a time.
Day Two, Second Pre-season test fastest time+laps
1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, Supersoft Tyre,1:23.261, 108 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Soft Tyre, 1:23.622, 73 laps
3. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, Supersoft Tyre, 1:23.933, 126 laps
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, Medium Tyre, 1:24.611, 151 laps
5. Jenson Button, McLaren, Soft Tyre, 1:25.183, 121 laps
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, Medium Tyre, 1:25.235, 135 laps
7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, Medium Tyre, 1:25.300, 166 laps
8. Sergio Perez, Force India, Medium Tyre, 1:26.188, 128 laps
9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, Medium Tyre, 1:26.298, 91 laps;
10. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, Soft Tyre, 1:27.064, 79 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, Medium Tyre, 1:27.862, 55 laps
12. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, No time, 1 lap
Feature Image Credit: Williams Martini Racing press release
