Valtteri Bottas Tops Second Day of 2021 F1 Pre-Season Test

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas finished fastest on the second day of Formula One’s pre-season testing ahead of the 2021 season. 

Having taken over the Mercedes W12 in the afternoon, Bottas went quickest on his late qualifying simulation with a 1m 30.289 on the C5 tyre compound on a qualifying simulation with just 20 minutes of the day’s running left, as he recovered from a difficult opening day in which he only managed six laps because of a gearbox issue.

Bottas’ teammate, Lewis Hamilton meanwhile endured a difficult morning as he struggled with the car’s setup and windy conditions, spinning off at Turn 13 and beaching his W12 in the gravel to cause a 17 minute red flag, before recovering to only 15th fastest overall.

Pierre Gasly finished second quickest for AlphaTauri after also opting for a qualifying simulation in the final hour on the C5 tyre, eventually winding up just 0.124s slower than Bottas after having also participated in the afternoon session.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished third fastest ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who set his time on C4 tyres whilst Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi ended his pre-season testing fifth fastest, with the Italian set to hand over to Kimi Raikkonen for the final day of running tomorrow (14 March).

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished sixth fastest following a late qualifying simulation on C5 tyre to put himself just ahead of Nicholas Latifi and Sergio Perez, of whom both enjoyed a strong day of running despite a collision caused by Perez clipping Latifi’s Williams in rear end midway through the afternoon.

Perez consequently sprayed bodywork across the start/finish straight to trigger a brief red flag to allow the debris to be removed and track cleared.

Daniel Ricciardo ended the morning session fastest for McLaren but ultimately found himself ninth fastest overall, having set his best time on the C3 tyres ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso who was tenth quickest on the C2 tyres and looked comfortable in the car despite his accident last month.

AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda finished 11th fastest ahead of Mick Schumacher, Carlos Sainz and Nikita Mazepin who were 12,13 & 14th quickest overall ahead of Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, as Vettel’s Aston Martin struggled with a gearbox issue.

Here are full timings from today’s running ahead of the final day of pre-season testing which gets underway 7am (GMT) tomorrow (14 March).