Barcelona F1 test two day one
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More personal bests now. Verstappen improves in fourth, Sirotkin in sixth and Hulkenberg in ninth. And Sirotkin's now posted the best first sector of anyone so far!
Oooooooh.
Vettel sets a 1m20.610s. Personal best and 0.014s slower than Bottas.
So close, surely a justified just of 'Oooooooh'.
Vettel sets a 1m20.610s. Personal best and 0.014s slower than Bottas.
So close, surely a justified just of 'Oooooooh'.
Screens are blocking Stuart Codling's view of what's going on inside the McLaren garage, but he reports that "it doesn’t seem to be a bustling hive of activity in there" at the moment.
A 1m23.468s from Hulkenberg as he begins to edge towards Ericsson on the leaderboard.
Verstappen set a personal best first sector but his medium tyres can't carry him to a new best overall.
Sirotkin improves to a 1m21.699s, so he's back to sixth.
And there he goes. Hulkenberg up to ninth on a 1m24.314s. Bad reading for McLaren fans just got worse.
Hulkenberg's going to bump Vandoorne and McLaren to last on the board soon. His next lap is a 1m25.044s, just 0.27s slower than Vandoorne's.
Bottas back down to work on soft tyres, lapping in the low-1m21s. Sirotkin's also out there on softs.
Hulkenberg sets a personal best on medium tyres, a 1m27.454s for the Renault driver. Verstappen's right behind him on track and also on mediums.
Information
And here's a lap count update for you:
Bottas 52
Verstappen 42
Vettel 38
Gasly 27
Magnussen 25
Ericsson 26
Perez 25
Sirotkin 20
Hulkenberg 7
Vandoorne 4
Bottas 52
Verstappen 42
Vettel 38
Gasly 27
Magnussen 25
Ericsson 26
Perez 25
Sirotkin 20
Hulkenberg 7
Vandoorne 4
Information
Here’s a round-up of the action so far:
* Bottas beats Vettel in a fight to be quickest, using soft tyres to post a 1m20.596s and completing 51 laps as well
* Vettel laps 0.057s slower in the Ferrari
* The strong start to Toro Rosso-Honda’s partnership continues with Gasly going third-quickest, less than four tenths slower than Bottas
* Conversely, Honda’s old partner McLaren is having a tough time with Vandoorne suffering a "power shutdown" after just four laps
* Hulkenberg/Renault prop up the timesheets with no representative lap from the six completed so far
* Bottas beats Vettel in a fight to be quickest, using soft tyres to post a 1m20.596s and completing 51 laps as well
* Vettel laps 0.057s slower in the Ferrari
* The strong start to Toro Rosso-Honda’s partnership continues with Gasly going third-quickest, less than four tenths slower than Bottas
* Conversely, Honda’s old partner McLaren is having a tough time with Vandoorne suffering a "power shutdown" after just four laps
* Hulkenberg/Renault prop up the timesheets with no representative lap from the six completed so far
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That red flag caused Vettel to have to stop in the pitlane
Bottas and Hulkenberg immediately out. Verstappen quickly follows.
Green flag
Green flag, running resumes.
Track cleaning in (grainy) progress
The offending gravel is being taken care of by the Barcelona marshals.
Looks like someone's had a run through the gravel exiting Turn 4. We can see tracks coming back onto the circuit on the CCTV.
Crash
Ah, here we go: debris at Turn 4.
That translates into 'we don't know what this is for'.
Vettel had just come back to the pits, and Perez - the last to return - is also back.
Red flag
Red flag.
...Hulkenberg does the same. Still no proper time from Renault.
Bottas back into the pitlane immediately.
Hulkenberg has also joined the fun after a chunky absence. Yet to see anything close to a representative time from the Renault.
Bottas heads back out. Mercedes isn't resting on its laurels.
Perez improves and Force India moves ahead of Williams. It's a 1m22.056s to get Perez back in front of Sirotkin.
This strong sunlight is great for spotting the details on the darker bits of F1 cars
Vettel can't keep his pace up over the rest of the lap and ends up a tenth slower than his best.
Ericsson pits after a strong run on medium tyres takes him to 26 laps for the day. Perez and Vettel the only two on track for now.
And as we write that, Vettel sets the best first sector so far...
Vettel's on a soft-tyre run at the moment and has been consistently improving each time. His latest effort is a 1m20.690s – again, very close to improving without actually doing so.
If you don't trust our text, here's visual proof the Haas has returned to the pits.
Ericsson takes another couple of tenths of his lap time again.
Magnussen in for real now after a brief run through before. Perez (1m22.393s) and Ericsson (1m22.781s) pop in personal bests but stay seventh and eighth.
Sirotkin posts a personal best in the middle sector (the first one we've seen from him in about 10 minutes) but maybe his soft tyres are giving up a little, as he fails to improve overall.
Perez, on soft tyres, isn't pushing hard at the moment so no sign of the Force India retaking the Sauber.
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Ericsson continues to improve on this medium-tyre run. He's into the 1m22s now with a 1m22.838s.
By: Geoff Creighton
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