However, though Ferrari has shown flashes of form this year, it has struggled to match Mercedes like-for-like and missed out on a prime opportunity during the Spanish Grand Prix as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen instead clinched victory following Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s controversial coming together.
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He covered 103 laps with a best time of 1:23.220, which he set on the soft tyres at roughly the same time that Q3 took place on Saturday, and in the same conditions.
Williams then reverted to its 2016-spec configuration for the afternoon, with Lynn completing 86 laps and ending the day 2.851s off the pace.
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel has that the pressure that has been put on them by their CEO Sergio Marchionne is a good thing.
Four-time world champion Vettel and his fellow German Rosberg both set their fastest times on soft tyres, with McLaren’s Jenson Button slower depsite using the super softs.
Romain Grosjean jumped to fourth for Haas with a late run on Pirelli’s new ultra-soft compound, which is set to debut at next week’s Monaco Grand Prix. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo ended the day in sixth position just 0.01s behind Wehrlein’s time, completing 89 laps. I think Monaco should be a strong track for us, past year we were very competitive there. His runs were consistent and his feedback was concise.
Williams development driver Alex Lynn finished the day 2.8s off the lead, having spent much of the morning testing a auto with radical front and rear wings the team said were collecting data relevant to 2016 and 2017. It is believed the team were running the device in a bid to get a handle on the 2017 aerodynamic regulations.
Vettel led the first of two days of testing at the Barcelona track, one tenth of a second faster than Rosberg.
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Sauber was the only team not to participate.
