Ferrari begun to unmask their pace as Sebastian Vettel topped the second day of the second F1 test at Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona.
On a day which begun in damp conditions, Vettel produced a day topping 1m 16.841 on the C5 tyre compound to put him 0.225s clear of Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly who set a 1m 17.066 in the final hour of the afternoon session.
Racing Point’s Lance Stroll ended the day in P3 with a 1m 17.118 which was just ahead of Nicholas Latifi in P4.
Lando Norris provided a glimpse of McLaren’s one lap pace with a 1m 17.573 to wrap up his testing programme in fifth, as several drivers hand over to their teammates for the final day of pre-season testing tomorrow.
Teams however were greeted with damp conditions this morning which caused issues as Antonio Giovinazzi spun at Turn Four, causing damage to the rear wing and the first of three red flags in the morning session.
Max Verstappen then spun and beached his Red Bull in the gravel barely 20 minutes following the restart to cause the second stoppage, only for Vettel to bring out a third red flag when he swept gravel across the track after spinning at the same corner as Verstappen.
Reliability Hits Mercedes
Embed from Getty ImagesReigning champions, Mercedes experienced their first proper pre-season reliability issues of the hybrid era on an eventful day for the Silver Arrows.
Valtteri Bottas was dominant in the opening stages this morning on a damp track as drivers opted for intermediates initially, lighting up the timing sheets during the switchover to slicks before posting a 1m 17.985 which was only good enough for seventh best time.
Bottas however encountered a power issue shortly before lunch which caused an early finish, costing Lewis Hamilton valuable running time in the afternoon as the team worked to resolve the issue for little over an hour.
Hamilton however could only manage 14 laps before pulling over with an oil related issue, curtailing his afternoon’s running as Mercedes’ reliability looks uncertain after similar issues affected Williams in the past week.
Racing Point however haven’t experienced any real issues of note with their Mercedes power units, which is to their credit given their promising pace.
Mercedes however weren’t the only team with technical issues today after Alex Albon encountered Honda power related issues at Red Bull in the afternoon. The Thai-British driver however managed to recover to finish the day with the tenth fastest time.
Full results from day five of F1’s 2020 pre-season testing;
- Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) – 1m 16.841 (144 laps)
- Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) – 1m 17.066 (138 laps)
- Lance Stroll (Racing Point) – 1m 17.118 (130 laps)
- Nicholas Latifi (Williams) – 1m 17.313 (158 laps)
- Lando Norris (McLaren) – 1m 17.573 (112 laps)
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 1m 17.738 (31 laps)
- Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 1m 17.985 (47 laps)
- Esteban Ocon (Renault) – 1m 18.013 (37 laps)
- Kevin Magnussen (Haas) – 1m 18.225 (110 laps)
- Alexander Albon (Red Bull) – 1m 18.393 (60 laps)
- Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) – 1m 18.395 (59 laps)
- Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) – 1m 19.670 (91 laps)
- Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 1m 22.425 (14 laps)