Finland’s Valtteri Bottas recorded the fastest time for Williams on Day Two of the second pre-season test in Barcelona as double world champions Mercedes enjoyed another promising session.
Advertisement
“We have had no major issues with the vehicle we were able to do quite a lot of laps and going through our program well, so, yeah, I think it was a good test”, he said.
Sadly, there was no last minute super-lap to bring pre-season testing to a dramatic close, no old-time Senna-like, Hakkinen-like late show, not unless you count Nico Rosberg’s cheeky last-dash improvement of 1.3s to close the gap on Rio Haryanto. Force India is also in the running for a strong finish at the first race, but despite setting the fourth fastest time using the super-softs, Sergio Perez’s day was cut short at 60 laps when he stopped on track in the afternoon. “I just say let’s wait two weeks”. The other Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was on track without incident for 67 laps in the afternoon session.
Mercedes completed 1294 laps – 3743 miles – over the eight days, 709 miles more than the next team, Toro Rosso with 1049 laps.
Rosberg was the slowest driver on the day, over two seconds behind the time set by Hamilton. “That is obviously not what you want when you are a rookie trying to turn up in Melbourne and do a good job, but the vehicle at least is reasonable”.
Haas may well find itself at the back of the grid with Manor come the first race, and F1’s perennial backmarkers had another tricky day on Friday due to a mechanical issue in the morning.
“I’ve pushed the auto here and there, but of course when we get to Australia, that’s when we get to really open it up”.
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson all broke the 100-lap barrier, and ended the day in sixth, seventh and ninth respectively. “I am happy with the feeling in the vehicle”.
Advertisement
“I think the “Halo” is ok”, he added, “even if I believe that this system can be improved in terms of both aesthetic and visibility and I think we will see an evolution of it very soon”.
