Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Raikkonen sets fastest time of test so far for Alfa Romeo

2019 F1 season

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Kimi Raikkonen revealed a little more of Alfa Romeo’s potential by setting the fastest lap of testing so far during the morning session at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Using a set of C5 tyres, the softest compound available, Raikkonen produced a lap of 1’17.762, cutting nearly four-tenths of a second off the previous best time set by Sebastian Vettel on Monday. The Ferrari driver had to settle for the second-fastest time.

Nico Hulkenberg led another three teams who improved on their best time of the test so far. He posted a 1’18.800 to put his RS19 in third place. Daniil Kvyat got the Toro Rosso up to fourth with a 1’18.897, just two-thousandths of a second quicker than Max Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver only covered 33 laps during the morning session as the team experimented with different aerodynamics set-ups. This including running a ‘Montreal-specification’ low-downforce rear wing at one stage.

Pietro Fittipaldi caused the only red flag of the morning session when his Haas came to a stop. He set the sixth-fastest time, and will hand the car over to Romain Grosjean for the afternoon’s running.

McLaren did not run at all in the first two hours of the day after discovering a gearbox problem on Carlos Sainz Jnr’s car while it was being worked on overnight. Once on the track he covered 27 laps, and had a minor off-track excursion at turn 14.

Valtteri Bottas was the slowest of the drivers to set a time but covered the most laps in his Mercedes W10. Williams have still not run their 2019 car but the FW42 has arrived at the circuit and the team expects to finally get its testing programme underway this afternoon.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLapsTyres
17Kimi RaikkonenAlfa RomeoC381’17.76264C5
25Sebastian VettelFerrariSF901’18.3500.58880C3
327Nico HulkenbergRenaultRS191’18.8001.03863C4
426Daniil KvyatToro RossoSTR141’18.8971.13548C3
533Max VerstappenRed BullRB151’18.8991.13733C3
651Pietro FittipaldiHaasVF-191’19.2491.48748C4
755Carlos Sainz JnrMcLarenMCL341’19.3541.59227C3
811Sergio PerezRacing PointRP191’20.1022.34043C3
977Valtteri BottasMercedesW101’20.6932.93188C3

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2019 F1 season

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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15 comments on “Raikkonen sets fastest time of test so far for Alfa Romeo”

  1. Awesome – go Kimi!
    I know its only testing but I think that’s pretty cool.

  2. Less than half a second off the fastest 2018 pre-season testing lap time anymore.

  3. Blistering pace, very encouraging for Sauber! And last year’s best time was Vettel on day 7 and hypersofts: 1:17.182.
    That 2018 best time is going to be smashed by the big ones.

    1. I meant Alfa Romeo obviously.

      1. It’s fine, RaceFans still refers to them as Sauber as well. As do I.

  4. Given you’d expect Ferrari/Mercedes/Red Bull to be far ahead of Alfa Romeo, it makes me wonder quite how hard the ‘big three’ are masking their speed.

    1. Probably a fair bit, they always seem to, which I don’t understand, if you are quick, you are quick!

      1. Not when you are quick from using party mode. You can’t show your best move in a practice.

    2. Mercedes especially. Was it last year, or the year before, where the Ferrari looked to be the faster ansld better handling car in testing, then midway through the season Merc put the afterburners on and couldn’t be caught.

      Not sure if we’ve learnt anything from this test so far, except that Ferrari look solid.

      1. “WE” don’t learn anything other than who has done the most running and who has had problems
        Its only the teams and the engineers who can actually learn anything from testing, as there are far too many variables involved that simply aren’t disclosed… ie fuel, battery, aero configuration, parts, power delivery, weights, what sort of run they are simulating etc etc etc etc

        1. Don’t be ridiculous! Are you insinuating Mercedes are NOT plum last?

          1. Didn’t you hear that Ferrari was dominating the competition on the first day of testing?

          2. Jacques, that you? o.O

  5. Not a fan of the full-width front wings. Makes the cars look like ride-on lawnmowers again, like in 2009.

  6. Thank you for including this:

    Using a set of C5 tyres, the softest compound available, Raikkonen produced a lap…

    Not sarcasm, my brain hasn’t started auto-translating C-numbers into softness yet and I forget which way the scale goes. Thanks! @keithcollantine

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