Barcelona II, day 2: Bottas quickest as Räikkönen crashes out

Mercedes Valtteri Bottas went quickest on the second day of the final pre-season F1 test in Barcelona as Ferrari’s running was ended early when Kimi Räikkönen crashed out midway through the afternoon.

Bottas’ best lap of 1:19.310, the fastest of testing so far, came in the morning session and was set on supersoft tyres. The Finn went on to complete 68 laps in the opening period before handing over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon. The three-time champion added another 79 laps to Mercedes’ total for the day as he claimed sixth place on the timesheet with a best time of 1:20.782s set on soft tyres.

After claiming P1 yesterday and posting a huge total of 168 laps, Williams’ Felipe Massa was second quickest today. The Brazilian also set his best time in the morning and ended the day a tenth of a second behind Bottas, though Massa’s time was set on ultrasoft tyres. He later handed over driving duties to Lance Stroll. After a baptism of fire in the first test, during which he had several on-track incidents, the Canadian driver had a much smoother start to his second test, posting a total of 59 laps and setting the day’s fifth-fastest lap.

Another morning lap that held good until the end of the day was that of Kimi Räikkönen. The Ferrari driver set a soft-tyre best of 1:20.406 to hold third on the timesheet.

The Finn wasn’t afforded a late-afternoon chance to better that time, however, as midway through the afternoon he spun out and hit the barriers at Turn 3. The resulting damage to the front and left side of his car was enough to cause Ferrari to halt running for the day.

Fourth place on the timesheet went to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, though the Dutchman had something of a start-stop day at the wheel of his RB13. After posting 34 laps in the morning the team called him back to the garage where he remained for almost three hours as an engine change was performed on his car.

When he did return to the fray Verstappen was able to add another 68 laps to his tally before another technical issue left him stranded at the exit of Turn 12 in the last 20 minutes of the session. Despite his problems, Verstappen ended the day with the largest single lap total of any driver.

With Hamilton sixth, seventh place went to Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg. The German was then followed by Force India’s Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. Haas’ Romain Grosjean completed the top 10, just over 2.5s adrift of Bottas.

Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein was 11th today, with the German finishing four hundredths of a second ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was followed by Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer.