Robert Kubica Tops Opening Day of Second Test

Alfa Romeo Reserve Driver, Robert Kubica topped the opening day of the second F1 test ahead of the 2020 season. 

Kubica set a 1m 16.942 towards the end of this morning’s session on the C5 compound, which went unchallenged throughout the afternoon session as teams opted instead to focus on long runs. 

Max Verstappen of Red Bull finished second fastest with a late flier towards the end of the afternoon session, finishing 0.405s behind Kubica but just ahead of Racing Point’s Sergio Perez. 

Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly round out the top five ahead of Alex Albon, with Gasly and Albon both encountering reliability issues this morning. 

Kvyat and Verstappen however brought out the red flag with five minutes left, as Kvyat ran out of fuel whilst Verstappen spun which meant an early end to the day’s running.

Elsewhere, Sebastian Vettel fought to the tenth fastest time of the day despite running wide on entry to Turn Seven, spreading gravel across the track to bring out the first red flag this morning as marshals swept the gravel off the circuit. 

Nicholas Latifi then suffered a power unit related issue shortly after the restart, which meant another stoppage whilst marshals were able to recover his car safely. 

This afternoon’s session saw several driver swaps with minimal disruption as teams focused on long runs, with particular focus on the C2, C3 and C4 compounds, before Verstappen, Kvyat and Perez all went for qualifying simulations prior to the last red flag of the day.  

Full classification of Day One of second F1 test:

1. Robert Kubica (Alfa Romeo) – 1m 16.942 (53 laps)
2. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 1m 17.347 (83 laps)
3. Sergio Perez (Racing Point) – 1m 17.428 (84 laps)
4. Daniil Kvyat (Alpha Tauri – 1m 17.456 (61 laps)
5. Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) – 1m 17.540 (25 laps)
6. Alex Albon (Red Bull) – 1m 17.550 (29 laps)
7. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1m 17.562 (89 laps)
8. Lance Stroll (Racing Point) – 1m 17.787 (43 laps)
9. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 1m 18.100  (90 laps)
10. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) – 1m 18.113 (84 laps)
11. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) – 1m 18.214 (53 laps)
12. Carlos Sainz (McLaren) – 1m 18.221 (46 laps)
13. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1m 18.244  (80 laps)
14. Nicholas Latifi (Williams) – 1m 18.300 (48 laps)
15. George Russell (Williams) – 1m 18.535 (58 laps)
16. Romain Grosjean (Haas) – 1m 18.670 (107 laps)
17. Lando Norris (McLaren) – 1m 18.826 (56 laps)
18. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) – 1m 19.515 (51 laps)
19. Esteban Ocon (Renault) – 1m 21.542 (74 laps)