Barcelona F1 test two day two
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There's only Bottas, Verstappen and Sainz on track now.
On that Verstappen tyre point, Red Bull only ran the C3 tyre yesterday.
That's very similar to how Mercedes in the past has run the medium compound for its base work.
That's very similar to how Mercedes in the past has run the medium compound for its base work.
Bottas backed off in the final sector, the tease.
Verstappen heads out on the C3 tyre.
But Bottas goes purple in the first sector on his fifth lap, and does so again in the second sector.
Bottas doesn't quite make it three best times in a row, as on this go he's set a 1m23.622s.
No other drivers have set competitive times yet.
No other drivers have set competitive times yet.
Scott Mitchell
We expect Ricciardo to go on a race simulation after his initial aero rake running.
Stopwatch
Bottas lowers his own leading time to a 1m22.624s.
Vettel has the aero rakes attached to the sidepods of his car.
Stopwatch
Bottas gives the first benchmark of the day with a 1m24.616s lap on the second-softest C4 tyre.
It very much helps the tyre identification game when teams enter the pitlane after one lap. We'll ask for that to be made mandatory for all teams.
Haas does an installation lap on the inter while Kubica's was completed on the C5. Vettel on the C3, Raikkonen too.
From our quick media centre glance, we make Sainz on the C5, Bottas on the C4 tyre.
Grosjean, Raikkonen, Kubica and Vettel also head straight out.
Green flag
And the session is underway, Bottas is the first to head out.
We have our first car at the pitlane exit, someone's keen.
And last but not least, working out the order of the midfield battle this year is proving tricky. From limited data, we reckon Alfa leads the performance runs, but struggles on the long stints compared to Renault and Haas.
Mercedes did not get much of a chance to validate a new aero package yesterday, so it'll be interesting to see if there will be back-to-back running with the two front wing options.
That isn't a reaction to Ferrari's strong start to testing, it will have been working on those designs for months. But it is clear Mercedes has work to do this week.
That isn't a reaction to Ferrari's strong start to testing, it will have been working on those designs for months. But it is clear Mercedes has work to do this week.
There's a few things to watch out for today.
We noted that Williams's pace on the softer C4 and C5 tyre wasn't impressive, and Russell reckons that's because it's still understanding its car after losing valuable testing time last week.
We noted that Williams's pace on the softer C4 and C5 tyre wasn't impressive, and Russell reckons that's because it's still understanding its car after losing valuable testing time last week.
Engines humming below us and there's five minutes until the morning session kicks off.
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And here's our full analysis of it all in video form:
Autosport
If you need a quick recap of yesterday's opening day - McLaren was rapid but caused a lot of red flags, and Mercedes lost a whole afternoon of running to an engine problem just when it needed to be sussing its latest aero package. Here's the full report: 
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Good morning and welcome to our Live coverage of day two of the final 2019 pre-season Formula 1 test at Barcelona.
By: Geoff Creighton
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