Hamilton and Mercedes end first test on top

[smr2018test]

Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on top as the first pre-season test for the 2018 F1 season concluded at the Circuit de Catalunya.

Hamilton ended the day with the fastest time of the entire test, recording a 1’19.333 after taking over the W09 from team mate Valtteri Bottas.

Sergio Perez, Force India, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018 — **2018 F1 testing day four in pictures**

The session began on a very wet circuit but conditions steadily improved throughout the day. By lunch time – when the usual hour’s break was cancelled to allow for extra running – the track was dry enough for teams to switch to slick tyres.
Most took full advantage of the opportunity to run at length following the disruption running earlier in the week. Mercedes, McLaren, Renault, Williams and Sauber all ran both their race drivers, though those who only ran when the track was wet largely ended up at the foot of the times.

Stoffel Vandoorne set the second-fastest time of the day after running the hyper-soft tyres again on his McLaren. He and team mate Fernando Alonso, who returned to the car late in the afternoon, covered 161 laps between them.

Pos.	Car number	Driver	Team	Model	Best time	Gap	Laps	Tyres
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W09	1’19.333		61	Medium
2	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	MCL33	1’19.854	0.521	110	Hyper-soft
3	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	SF71H	1’20.241	0.908	120	Soft
4	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	VF-18	1’20.317	0.984	96	Super-soft
5	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	MCL33	1’20.929	1.596	51	Super-soft
6	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Renault	RS18	1’20.940	1.607	60	Medium
7	18	Lance Stroll	Williams	FW41	1’21.142	1.809	54	Soft
8	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	VJM11	1’21.973	2.640	65	Soft
9	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB14	1’22.058	2.725	35	Soft
10	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	STR13	1’22.134	2.801	147	Super-soft
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	RS18	1’22.507	3.174	49	Soft
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	W09	1’22.789	3.456	60	Medium
13	16	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	C37	1’22.808	3.475	59	Soft
14	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	C37	1’23.825	4.492	79	Super-soft
15	35	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	FW41	1’31.979	12.646	47	Intermediate

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9 comments on “Hamilton and Mercedes end first test on top”

Joao (@johnmilk)
1st March 2018, 20:08
Am I having a déjá-vu or what?
What happened Keith?
1. Robbie (@robbie)
  1st March 2018, 20:12
  Ok good it wasn’t just me.
2. Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
  1st March 2018, 20:13
  @johnmilk There was a problem which I can only put down to finger trouble on my part. Very sorry to say this has resulted in the lost of comments which were posted earlier. Sorry everyone, will do my best not to let it happen again.
  1. Joao (@johnmilk)
    1st March 2018, 20:17
    @keithcollantine worry not, we might have lost some wise words, but the genius are still hovering around
  2. nase
    1st March 2018, 21:14
    Something has happened to the time table as well, hasn’t it? Alonso’s lap count now stands at 30, but I remember it being 51. No idea about the rest, though, remembering numbers isn’t really my greatest strength.
    1. Ed Marques (@edmarques)
      1st March 2018, 21:35
      Alonso 51 and Hamiton 69. Both are wrong there.
  3. DaveD (@daved)
    2nd March 2018, 2:37
    But what if I said something really enlightening and thought provoking about the world of F1? LOL Yeah, I’m hallucinating. 😜
Dan Rooke (@geekzilla9000)
2nd March 2018, 7:02
I blame Bernie Ecclestone.
Bernie and his crazy ideas – “Let’s have fan comments randomly removed from public forums to keep it dynamic”.
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
3rd March 2018, 10:31
MacLaren had to leave for Honda to stop breaking down hourly. Classic.
Not sure about their power output now, but it’d kinda make me sad now to watch them succeed this year. I was emotionally attached to the whole MacHonda thing, and now MacLaren went for what is still regarded as a 2nd rate engine, said bye-bye to the works dream, and there we go, works out for Red Bull? :) some people have none of the luck