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Barcelona F1 test day two

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Vandoorne heads out. We caught a glimpse of him passing through the pits on the new hypersoft compound earlier, perhaps the pink dot will make a debut on our timing box if he's got them on now. To be honest we just want to have anything to add to our timing box right now... as Vandoorne pits. He was at least running the pink-marked tyres again.
Those drivers raised our hopes that business was about to pick up on track, but they've all returned to the pits without posting times.
Gasly heads out as well. While he got some races under his belt at the end of 2017, he's hardly a veteran, so he could have done with a busier start to 2018 testing too.
Sirotkin and Leclerc leave the pits. The two rookies could have done with better conditions to help them get up to speed in F1 during the early days of pre-season.
Haven't had many shots of Sirotkin in the Williams here today, so here's one. Make the most of that Martini colour scheme - as we revealed this morning, that deal ends after 2018

Haven't had many shots of Sirotkin in the Williams here today, so here's one. Make the most of that Martini colour scheme - as we revealed this morning, that deal ends after 2018

Bottas is cruising around again, and he's cruising a bit quicker than he was before, so he has a new personal best in the books with a 1m43.750s.
Sainz smashes his intermediates-on-dry-track best from earlier with a 1m26.274s on softs. Are we about to see some more proper running today at last?
Sirotkin continues to complete out laps followed by in laps, while Ocon and Sainz have also headed out now. We've had a track temperature dip from earlier, so we're back down to just under nine degrees celsius now.
Bottas lapping slowly for aero tests on a cold track is a good chance to get a close-up of Mercedes' front wing detail

Bottas lapping slowly for aero tests on a cold track is a good chance to get a close-up of Mercedes' front wing detail

Gasly and Vettel have joined Bottas on track, with air temperature now up to 1.7 and track temp at 12.8 degrees celsius.
If you're wondering why Bottas's time is so slow (he's just come around again another four seconds slower) it's because he's doing aero tests which require running at reduced speeds.
We've just been informed there will be no lunch break today. Perhaps 1-2pm is when we're going to get the best of the weather.
Verstappen on track earlier with a massive fence of an aero sensor on his Red Bull

Verstappen on track earlier with a massive fence of an aero sensor on his Red Bull

Lap count: 
Sirotkin 8; Vandoorne 6; Leclerc 5; Sainz 4; Bottas 4; Vettel 3; Ocon 3; Magnussen, Gasly, Verstappen 1
Leclerc's Sauber returns to the pits looking like it's had a pot of aero paint dropped on its sidepod.
There hasn't been a lot of track action yet this morning, but what there has been is captured in motorsport.com's comprehensive gallery - including a lot of sensors:
FIA Formula 1 2017 | Browse Exclusive Photos of F1 Teams, Drivers, Events and more.
We have our first time of the day - Sainz posts a 1m34.177s on intermediates.
To continue the tyre/weather confusion, we have Sirotkin and Sainz on inters at the moment, and Vettel on softs.
Low temperatures change the way the car works. Anything close to the ground is temperature sensitive, and the stall point of your diffuser will be a lot lower at low temperatures because the air is thicker than at high temperatures. You could be talking as much as 5mm difference.

You want to get these cars in the ideal working window for the most challenging and important coolers so you need to understand those characteristics and how the temperature impacts them.

These teams are experienced and will experiment with those stall points on aero runs so they understand all of that during the test.

But unlike the past, when wealthier teams could go to more distant, sunnier places, it's the same for everybody. Nobody can gain an advantage with conditions, you've just got to make the best of it.

Anyway, nobody knows what it will be like in Australia next month, where you can easily get four seasons in one day.
Cars running inters and wets has understandably led to questions about if it's wet here today. It isn't, it's just so cold some of the teams see no point in running slicks that they won't be able to get into a working temperature.
This is clearly Verstappen's 'opinion of the halo' face (Sutton Images)

This is clearly Verstappen's 'opinion of the halo' face (Sutton Images)

By: Geoff Creighton

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