F1 testing round-up: Ferrari leads the way as McLaren hits trouble

After Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes headed the opening test at Barcelona, Ferrari rallied in week two with a display of impressive one-lap and long-run pace.

Raikkonen's 1m18.634s on super-soft tyres was 0.7 seconds faster than any other team managed and came after team-mate Sebastian Vettel visibly held back on his own performance runs.

Vettel backed off twice while on ultra-soft tyres to limit himself to a 1m19.024s, but that was still good enough to keep him clear of the best Mercedes could manage in testing.

The Silver Arrows' new signing Bottas topped day two of the second test on a 1m19.310s on ultra-softs and that just shaded team-mate Lewis Hamilton, whose 1m19.352s a day later also came on ultra-soft tyres.

Vettel's long-run pace also proved encouraging for Ferrari, although Mercedes did not complete a race simulation with the upgraded engine that appeared in the second week.

Ferrari's encouraging showing in the second half of testing was not without its problems.

Raikkonen spun at Turn 3 on Wednesday and hit the wall, damaging the left-hand side of the car and restricting the Finn to 53 laps. He also suffered an on-track stoppage on the final day.

That meant Ferrari did not match Mercedes' mileage, as Hamilton and Bottas added another 540 laps in the second week to accrue a test-best 1096 laps between them - Bottas proving the most industrious driver across all of testing with 628 laps to his name.

That translates into 3170 miles of the Circuit de Catalunya for Mercedes, equal to 16.6 Spanish Grands Prix. Ferrari was still Mercedes' closest challenger on the mileage count, with its SF70H logging 956 laps (2765 miles).

On the engine side, Mercedes led the way again with the works team, Williams and Force India racking up 2681 laps. Ferrari, Haas and Sauber managed 2459, but Renault struggled and Honda had a disaster.

Gremlins in the MGU-K in Renault's new Energy Recovery Systems meant poor reliability for the works outfit, plus its customer teams Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

The French manufacturer's overhaul of its engine concept is the reason for its fragility, which it expects to rectify by the Australian Grand Prix on March 26, and its trio of teams racked up just 1181 laps.

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen's final day improvement to a 1m19.438s on super-softs moved him to sixth and within sight of Mercedes, albeit slower than Williams' Felipe Massa on ultra-softs.

Carlos Sainz and Nico Hulkenberg also improved on the last day to go seventh and eighth respectively for Toro Rosso and Renault.

There was no such silver lining for McLaren and Honda, though, as a problematic test got worse, not better.

Low mileage (208 laps) and low performance in the first week was followed by a barely-improved lap count of 217, but also Fernando Alonso's damning verdict that Honda's much-anticipated RA617H engine had "no power and no reliability".

Recurring issues exposed Honda's product as deeply flawed, with McLaren suffering numerous technical problems in week and ultimately lapping 2.7s off the pace, quicker only than Sauber.

Alonso (190 laps) and Stoffel Vandoorne (235) caused two red flags each on the final two days, and completed the fewest number of laps of those present at both tests - although Sauber driver Pascal Wehrlein, who skipped the first test with a back injury, still managed more laps than Alonso.

COMBINED OVERALL WINTER TESTING STATS

Combined best times:

Pos  Driver             Car                   Time       Gap      Tyres
 1.  Kimi Raikkonen     Ferrari               1m18.634s           SS
 2.  Sebastian Vettel   Ferrari               1m19.024s  +0.390s  US
 3.  Valtteri Bottas    Mercedes              1m19.310s  +0.676s  SS
 4.  Lewis Hamilton     Mercedes              1m19.352s  +0.718s  US
 5.  Felipe Massa       Williams-Mercedes     1m19.420s  +0.786s  US
 6.  Max Verstappen     Red Bull-Renault      1m19.438s  +0.804s  SS
 7.  Carlos Sainz Jr    Toro Rosso-Renault    1m19.837s  +1.203s  US
 8.  Nico Hulkenberg    Renault               1m19.885s  +1.251s  US
 9.  Daniel Ricciardo   Red Bull-Renault      1m19.900s  +1.266s  US
10.  Sergio Perez       Force India-Mercedes  1m20.116s  +1.482s  US
11.  Esteban Ocon       Force India-Mercedes  1m20.161s  +1.527s  US
12.  Jolyon Palmer      Renault               1m20.205s  +1.571s  US
13.  Lance Stroll       Williams-Mercedes     1m20.335s  +1.701s  S
14.  Daniil Kvyat       Toro Rosso-Renault    1m20.416s  +1.782s  SS
15.  Kevin Magnussen    Haas-Ferrari          1m20.504s  +1.870s  US
16.  Romain Grosjean    Haas-Ferrari          1m21.110s  +2.476s  US
17.  Stoffel Vandoorne  McLaren-Honda         1m21.348s  +2.714s  US
18.  Fernando Alonso    McLaren-Honda         1m21.389s  +2.755s  US
19.  Marcus Ericsson    Sauber-Ferrari        1m21.670s  +3.036s  US
20.  Pascal Wehrlein    Sauber-Ferrari        1m22.347s  +3.713s  US
21.  Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber-Ferrari        1m22.401s  +3.767s  US
22.  Alfonso Celis Jr   Force India-Mercedes  1m23.567s  +4.933s  US

Total testing mileage by driver:

Pos  Driver              Miles
 1.  Valtteri Bottas     1816
 2.  Sebastian Vettel    1709
 3.  Lewis Hamilton      1354
 4.  Marcus Ericsson     1287
 5.  Felipe Massa        1197
 6.  Lance Stroll        1117
 7.  Kevin Magnussen     1068
 8.  Kimi Raikkonen      1056
 9.  Esteban Ocon        1056
10.  Sergio Perez        1010
11.  Max Verstappen      1004
12.  Romain Grosjean     1001
13.  Daniel Ricciardo    975
14.  Nico Hulkenberg     908
15.  Carlos Sainz Jr     888
16.  Jolyon Palmer       818
17.  Daniil Kvyat        801
18.  Stoffel Vandoorne   680
19.  Pascal Wehrlein     556
20.  Fernando Alonso     549
21.  Antonio Giovinazzi  437
22.  Alfonso Celis Jr    206

Total testing mileage by team:

 1.  Mercedes     3170
 2.  Ferrari      2765
 3.  Williams     2314
 4.  Sauber       2279
 5.  Force India  2270
 6.  Haas         2068
 7.  Red Bull     1978
 8.  Renault      1727
 9.  Toro Rosso   1690
10.  McLaren      1229

Total testing mileage by engine:

 1.  Mercedes  7755
 2.  Ferrari   7113
 3.  Renault   5395
 4.  Honda     1229