Williams edges Mercedes in Wednesday test while Haas hits more trouble
Valtteri Bottas topped the times for Williams on the second day of the second and final F1 test in Barcelona, the Finn edging out the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg by over 0.3s.
Bottas used the supersoft Pirelli as opposed to the soft used by Rosberg, but nevertheless it was a good time by the Williams driver. As has become the habit, Mercedes split the day between its drivers, with Lewis Hamilton running in the morning, and Rosberg in the afternoon.
“It was another useful day of testing,” said Rosberg. “I did a full Melbourne race simulation and I feel well prepared now for the first race. The team have done a great job so far both in the factory and here on track. The car feels great out there and I haven't had a major problem yet. I hope this will continue for the last two days.”
Renault had good day as Kevin Magnussen logged 126 laps and set the third fastest time, but the Dane was still over 0.7s off Bottas with the same tires.
Sebastian Vettel had better luck with Ferrari reliability than Kimi Raikkonen did on Tuesday, the German completing 151 laps. He did not stray off the medium tire and set the fourth fastest time of the day.
“I would have liked to drive a little bit more but we are happy with what we have so far,” said Vettel. “I am not concerned about what happened to Kimi. Obviously, you don't want these things to happen but if they do here, during a test, it's OK. It would be worse if they happened in a couple of weeks, so it is not an issue. This is a test and it takes time to look and check everything. We still have time and two days left here, so let's try to use them and the we'll see. We will push and try to do everything. Our President already said a couple of times he is expecting Ferrari to be in the front row in Australia, so at least he is consistent. We will push and will try everything we can.”
Most teams showed good reliability with several other drivers going well over the 100-lap mark, namely Jenson Button (121), Daniel Ricciardo (135), Carlos Sainz (166) and Sergio Perez (128).
“What a wonderful day for myself and the whole team,” said Sainz. “It was a trouble-free one and we managed to run through the planned program. I’m very happy. Everything is feeling great and I feel better in the car every day that goes by, which is promising. I’m also very pleased to have completed a further 166 laps today, it shows once again that the car is reliable and it gives us confidence before the start of the season.”
Marcus Ericsson had his first run in the new Sauber, but the Swede had a fright when the car lost a wheel towards the end of the day.
Meanwhile it was a disastrous day for Haas as Esteban Gutierrez failed to complete a timed lap after the Haas suffered a turbo failure. Having run only 23 laps on Tuesday, the Mexican is short of mileage heading to the first race in Australia.
Full Wednesday results:
