Barcelona F1 test two day one
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We're in a bit of a spell now without any improvements on the board. We did just spot a flash of green on the timing screens, thanks to a new personal best from Albon in the first sector, but unless the timing screens are playing tricks on us he didn't improve.
Albon, presumably as fed up with the timing screen's lack of responsiveness as we are, has pitted for good measure. Gasly's done so too.
Ricciardo heads in, so it's just Vettel and Norris (who's just headed out for McLaren) out there now.
Norris finally improves on the 1m22.306s he set at 10am this morning, and vaults up to eighth with a 1m19.264s set on his first lap on the C5 tyre.
Norris brings the McLaren back in next time round. If that was a glory run, we wouldn't say it impressed us.
Stroll and Giovinazzi head back out to give Vettel some company.
Pacesetter Gasly is also back out on track for Red Bull.
if it wasn't clear previously, Vettel is definitely on a long run here. He's still lapping in the 1m24s on the C4 tyre.
Stroll goes fastest of all now in the first sector.
And the second...
A familiar face keeps tabs on the action
Stroll goes faster in the end, but not fastest. His 1m17.824s puts him second, but we can't tell whether that was on the C4 or C5.
Norris is back out on what definitely looks like a C5, and sets personal bests in the first two sectors.
Norris follows Stroll - who we're more confident the next time round is on the C4 - over the line, moving up to fourth on a 1m18.260s.
Norris brings the McLaren back into the pits again after another short run.
A new personal best for Albon in the first sector.
Albon also set a personal best in the second sector but didn't improve in the final one and remains eighth.
It's a set of the C3s for Vettel for this latest run.
A new personal best for Albon this time - that's a 1m18.923s on the C4 tyres.
Norris goes fastest of all now in the first sector.
The McLaren is also quickest in sector two...
Stopwatch
And goes to the top of the times with a 1m17.709s!
Jake Boxall-Legge
Remember those 'controversial' rear wheel spacers Mercedes ran last season, in conjunction with those scalloped rims?
Williams has turned up this week with its own variation. The holes in the spacer are a lot more pronounced than Mercedes's collection of small holes, suggesting a greater emphasis on extracting heat from the centre of the wheel assembly.
Another look at the Williams design
Norris continued the pattern of outlap/quick-lap/in-lap with that table-topping effort on the C5 tyre.
That's also Norris's fastest time of testing so far. His best over the four days last week was a 1m18.431s.
All the drivers on track and have completed outlaps - Gasly, Ricciardo and Vettel - are lapping in the 1m21-22s range.
Magnussen followed not long after and came close to beating his best time, lapping in 1m18.837s, falling short by 0.068 on the C4s.
Like fellow Canadians Rush in 1976, Stroll has entered the twilight zone
Our pacesetter Norris is back out with just over 20 minutes of the session left to go.
Red flag
We have a red flag.
Information
And it's Norris for the second time today!
Deja vu?
It was a loss of hydraulic pressure that cost McLaren nearly two hours of running this morning.
Rapid flatbed truck arrival this time
The McLaren is now on the back of the truck, so this session will almost certainly start again before the clock runs out of time.
A quick move of the CCTV camera proves conclusively that Norris stopped just after Turn 2.
The truck is now taking the unconventional line of driving Turns 2 and 1 in reverse to take Norris's McLaren back to the pitlane.
Bold move, let's see how it works out for him.
Bold move, let's see how it works out for him.
We've got just under 15 minutes to go, so you'd say there's likely to be 10 mins of proper running for the teams.
By: Geoff Creighton
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