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Valtteri Bottas on top Wednesday as times continue to improve
The times continued to fall in Barcelona on Wednesday as Valtteri Bottas set a new benchmark for the best time of the winter so far.
Four teams had drivers on double duty, with Mercedes, Williams, Renault and Sauber all swapping over during the lunch break, and thus 14 drivers appearing on track over the course of the two sessions.
Bottas set his best of 1m19.301s in the morning with supersoft tires on his Mercedes W08, going some four-tenths faster than the best mark he set last week. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa continued his good work from yesterday for Williams, and was just a tenth slower on ultrasofts. Both men only ran in the morning, before Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll took over their cars.
"We managed to complete our program as planned and I have to say that I felt much better in the car today with the changes we've made," said Bottas. "We're definitely making good progress as a team and I'm feeling more and more comfortable in the car every time I go out on track. We were focusing on shorter runs today. In the first part of the morning we did lots of aero tests to evaluate some upgrades and everything seems to be going in a positive direction. There's still plenty of work to do so we need to maximize the next two days of testing."
"We completed all of our programs and, like yesterday, I had a good feeling in the car," reported Massa. "We’re happy with everything we tried in terms of set-up and trying different tyres. I’ve had a very good day and a half, but hopefully this is just the beginning and we can finish testing well. I’m very happy with what I’ve seen and what I feel in the car. It’s still difficult to know where we are compared to the others, but the car is definitely looking positive."
Stroll had much better luck than he enjoyed last week, running a decent total of 59 laps and setting what was the fifth best time of the day.
It was a relatively uneventful day on track other than a trip into the gravel for third fastest Kimi Raikkonen in the afternoon, which cause some damage to the front left of the Ferrari SF70H. Earlier he’d lost track time to what the team called a “fluid check.” The car did not run again after the off, and after a bulletproof start to testing it logged only 53 laps for the day.
Red Bull and Max Verstappen had a frustrating day, with a lot of track time lost to a Renault power unit change, before he stopped on track in the final minutes of the afternoon session. The Dutchman still managed to reach the 102 lap mark, and was fourth fastest.
"It was not bad today," said Verstappen afterward. "We had some stoppages obviously but then in the afternoon we almost completed a full race distance, so that was good. It felt good, and we got a lot of information today again, which is the most important thing. It was unfortunate that we had to stop at the end but I think we’re pretty confident we can solve those issues without any trouble. The long run this afternoon felt good…. quite long! It’s pretty boring when you’re out there on your own, but everything felt well."
https://twitter.com/redbullracing/status/839551332696506368
Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean all took over from respective their team mates for their first outings of the second week of testing, and all ran strong mileage, with Perez reaching 100 laps, and the others getting close.
"It was quite a disrupted day with the red flags and it meant we didn’t manage to complete the full program," admitted Perez. "It was important to do the long runs this afternoon and get a feel for the performance of the tires. The low degradation makes them more fun to drive – you still have to manage them but you can push more than in previous years. With a new car, it’s important to get to know all the strengths and weaknesses, and work on the latter, so that’s the focus of the team"
"I think today was a much better day compared to last week and we’ve definitely made a step forward in terms of reliability," said Sainz. "Our test program this week is a very tight one as we still have a lot of catching-up to do, so it’s therefore still too early to make any conclusions. Even though we lost a bit of valuable track time, I’m happy with the fact that I was able to do so many laps, because that’s what testing is all about!"
"We’re still evaluating how the car is going and how we can improve the setup and find the weaknesses and strengths," said Grosjean. "Hopefully, before Melbourne we’ll have the time to make some small adjustments aerodynamically and mechanically to get there and be ready for a good performance. I’m very much looking forward to getting back in on Friday."
McLaren and Honda continued to get attention for the wrong seasons, with Fernando Alonso running only 46 laps despite the team not reporting any major issues. A spokesperson said: “We’re going through our run plan as planned, just lots to get through.”
https://twitter.com/F1/status/839541212050767872
Wednesday results:
1. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 1m19.310s [AM]
2. Felipe Massa (Williams) 1m19.420s [AM]
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) 1m20.406s
4. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m20.432s
5. Lance Stroll (Williams) 1m20.579s [PM]
6. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m20.702s [PM]
7. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) 1m21.213s [AM]
8. Sergio Perez (Force India) 1m21.297s
9. Carlos Sainz (Toro Rosso) 1m21.872s
10. Romain Grosjean (Haas) 1m21.887s
11. Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber) 1m23.000s [AM]
12. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 1m23.041s
13. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) 1m23.384s [PM]
14. Jolyon Palmer (Renault) 1m26.462s [PM]
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