[smr2018test]
Mercedes were kept from the top of the times sheets for the second day running as Ferrari led the way at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Sebastian Vettel, driving his first full day at the wheel of the SF71H, set the quickest time of the test so far with a 1’19.673, some three-tenths of a second faster than Valtteri Bottas. Vettel also caused a brief red flag with a spin at turn two.
Very cold conditions at the start of the test meant few drivers ventured out early on. The track temperature eventually warmed up slightly but it remained chilly enough for a brief snow flurry later in the running.
Mercedes began the day intending to run Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon session. However after the lunch break was cancelled to allow for extra running the team said it had decided to take full advantage of the opportunity rather than lose time converting the car to his specification and kept Bottas in the car.
An early run on hyper-softs moved Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren up to third overall but he was only able to complete 37 laps. The car spent most of the afternoon in the garage.
Williams stuck to its plan of splitting the day between its two drivers. Robert Kubica took over from Sergey Sirotkin in the afternoon and ended up the quicker of the two by three-tenths of a second.
Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps | Tyres |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | SF71H | 1’19.673 | 98 | Soft | |
2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | W09 | 1’19.976 | 0.303 | 94 | Medium |
3 | 2 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | MCL33 | 1’20.325 | 0.652 | 37 | Hyper-soft |
4 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | RB14 | 1’20.326 | 0.653 | 67 | Medium |
5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Renault | RS18 | 1’21.212 | 1.539 | 65 | Soft |
6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | STR13 | 1’21.318 | 1.645 | 82 | Soft |
7 | 40 | Robert Kubica | Williams | FW41 | 1’21.495 | 1.822 | 48 | Soft |
8 | 35 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | FW41 | 1’21.822 | 2.149 | 52 | Soft |
9 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | VJM11 | 1’21.841 | 2.168 | 79 | Soft |
10 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | C37 | 1’22.721 | 3.048 | 81 | Soft |
11 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | VF-18 | 1’22.727 | 3.054 | 36 | Soft |
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2018 F1 season
- McLaren staff told us we were “totally crazy” to take Honda engines in 2018 – Tost
- ‘It doesn’t matter if we start last’: How Red Bull’s junior team aided Honda’s leap forward
- Honda’s jet division helped F1 engineers solve power unit problem
- McLaren Racing losses rise after Honda split
- Ricciardo: Baku “s***show” was Red Bull’s fault
faulty (@faulty)
27th February 2018, 17:08
Worrying signals from McLaren in these two days.
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
27th February 2018, 17:42
Hehe :-)
Armand Serpentier (@armandf1v)
27th February 2018, 18:36
Or just sandbagging, but i’m afraid it’s very worrying, their exhaust is also damaging
sethje (@seth-space)
27th February 2018, 18:37
They are not used to long testing sessions… but there’s no Honda to blame now.
gunusugeh (@gunusugeh)
27th February 2018, 23:01
but there is Alonso
JCost (@jcost)
28th February 2018, 7:15
On the other hand… Honda is doing pretty damn good so far.
Vettel fan 17 (@)
27th February 2018, 17:10
Does anyone know what tyre Vettel was on? I know Bottas was on softs
Simeon Simeonoff (@simeonoff)
27th February 2018, 17:15
Vettel was on the soft, while Bottas was on medium.
Nate
27th February 2018, 17:16
Vettel was on softs…
John well
27th February 2018, 17:19
Bottas -> medium
Vettel -> soft
GeeMac (@geemac)
27th February 2018, 17:22
Vettel was on softs and Bottas was on mediums according to Autosport’s timing.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
27th February 2018, 17:36
Snow’s always a good leveller.
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
27th February 2018, 18:00
Still find it so very humorous how many laps Toro Rosso have managed to get under its belt xD
q85
27th February 2018, 18:18
probably one of the most meaningless test weeks in years.
Hope it warms up soon to get some half decent running
Andrew Zarb
27th February 2018, 18:56
It is expected to start getting warmer as from Thursday.
Ronald (@mosquito)
27th February 2018, 19:49
Well, not this week.
Ian Bond (@ianbond001)
27th February 2018, 20:12
Since it was snowing, Ferrari should have put Kimi in the car; finns are great on snow.
PMccarthy_is_a_legend (@pmccarthy_is_a_legend)
27th February 2018, 20:28
McLaren going for a glory run on the hyper softs to deflect a little bit of the bad press of two car problems in two days, I think…
Kenny Schachat (@partofthepuzzle)
27th February 2018, 20:51
The image of an F1 race in the snow is too good. I remember when Verstappen did an awesome RB demo in the in snow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFSJr2LK0J8
If Liberty did that, it would get the biggest F1 TV audience in history.
Damon (@damon)
27th February 2018, 21:18
It had been done before several times :)
But look at this – “Single seater driven around Nurburgring Nordschleife in the snow!”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2g6sTSbxBU
Todfod (@todfod)
28th February 2018, 4:34
@damon
What a great find. Some serious skill displayed by the driver. I’ve never seen so man steering corrections on a straight… Lol
Todfod (@todfod)
28th February 2018, 4:49
It’s harder than usual to read in to testing times this week, due to the terrible track conditions, however, at the front of the field, the start to testing seems really similar to last year’s. Both Ferrari and Mercedes putting up the fastest times and the most mileage. Red Bull seem slightly better than last year, at least reliability-wise.
If I had to make early predictions, I don’t think it will be a lot different to last year’s start of the season. Mercedes and Ferrari will still be fighting for the wins, with Red Bull hot on the heels of the underperforming Ferrari and Mercedes drivers.
What will be interesting though is the midfield battle. I think we’d need around 3 to 4 proper days of testing to figure out who the real contenders for that 4th spot are.