Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Mercedes sweeps to a 1-2 on Friday
Bottas' morning time goes unbeaten all day
Vettel's Ferrari stops on track with engine issue
Trouble for Magnussen, Latifi and Ricciardo
Status: Stopped
Driver, Team, Time, Tyre
Bottas,Mercedes,1m15.732s,C5
Hamilton,Mercedes,1m16.516s,C5
Ocon,Renault,1m17.102s,C4
Stroll,Racing Point,1m17.338s,C4
Kvyat,AlphaTauri,1m17.427s,C4
Verstappen,Red Bull,1m17.636s,C2
Giovinazzi,Alfa Romeo,1m17.469s,C4
Albon,Red Bull,1m18.154s,C2
Gasly,AlphaTauri,1m18.213s,C2
Sainz,McLaren,1m18.274s,C2
Grosjean,Haas,1m18.380s,C3
Vettel,Ferrari,1m18.384s,C3
Ricciardo,Renault,1m17.574s,C3
Latifi,Williams,1m19.004s,C3
Norris,McLaren,1m18.454s,C3
Magnussen,Haas,1m19.708s,C2
Well, that is it for week one, and what an interesting week it has been.

We thank you for you company over the last three days and hope you can join us again next week for the final pre-season test.

Until then, though, it is a very warm goodbye.
As the sun sets on the first week of testing, we'll get started on turning around podcasts and videos for your viewing/listening pleasure. Thanks very much for joining us (and for putting up with the Marc Gene facts).

As the sun sets on the first week of testing, we'll get started on turning around podcasts and videos for your viewing/listening pleasure. Thanks very much for joining us (and for putting up with the Marc Gene facts).

That's a wrap! As Ferrari encounters strife, Mercedes seals another 1-2 at the end of the first week of pre-season testing. Could it be a sign of things to come? One thing's for sure, the rest of the grid have got a lot of head-scratching to do over the weekend.
Barcelona F1 testing: Mercedes seals another 1-2 at end of week one
 
 
 
A full report of today's action is to follow!
Ferrari is still far off the pace compared to Mercedes, with Vettel ending the day P13, 2.6 seconds back from Bottas's benchmark time. One would imagine there is more to come from the Italian team next week...
Esteban Ocon takes P3 overall for Renault ahead of Lance Stroll and Daniil Kvyat, with Antonio Giovinazzi in sixth for Alfa Romeo. Giovinazzi racked up 152 laps today, more than any other driver.
Pierre Gasly makes a late, late improvement at the chequered flag, moving from P10 to P9 ahead of Albon. Chapeau!
Valtteri Bottas ends the day fastest for Mercedes as his morning benchmark time of 1m15.732s goes unbeaten, finishing seven-tenths of a second clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
CHEQUERED FLAG - That's a wrap on Friday's running and on the opening test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya!
Hamilton has now completed over one race distance on the day - 70 laps in the book this afternoon since taking over from Bottas.
Vettel comes into the pits and changes tyres before heading back out. Five minutes remain in the day.
Hamilton has been completing a few more drive-throughs in the pit lane. Vettel is still putting in the laps on a long run.
Norris does post his best time yet, 1m18.454s, but stays 14th overall for McLaren.
Could we see a late improvement? Norris is up through Sector 1...
 
Hamilton completes a drive-through in the pits before doing a practice start. Giovinazzi, Latifi, Albon, Vettel and Ricciardo are also out on-track right now.
Hamilton has a slight snap on his car coming out of the chicane in the final sector after getting caught in Latifi's dirty air, but catches it OK. We doubt that will be too much of a recurring issue for the Mercedes man this year...
We've seen some crazy lap count totals over the past two days, but the four red flags have slowed things down a little bit today. Only Stroll and Giovinazzi have made it over the 100-lap mark.
Just 20 minutes left on the clock in the opening test. Hamilton and Vettel are the only drivers out on-track currently.
Norris has recently done a 1m18.477s on another set of C3 tyres, and the Brit has hence shaved a little time off of his previous best.
Giovinazzi's car has been slathered in a lot of flow-viz - he's either aero testing or has had a run-in with the gunge left over from a late-90s kids' TV show. It's probably the former...
Latifi's back on track after his engine change, and he's already logged a few laps this afternoon to make up for lost time.
 
Just Stroll and Albon are currently on track now, with 45 minutes left of running on the clock. Stroll is C2-ing, with Albon on C1s.
Let's take a look at the leaderboard as we head towards the final 45 minutes of week one:

1 Bottas 1m15.732s
2 Hamilton +0.784s
3 Ocon +1.370s
4 Stroll +1.606s
5 Kvyat +1.695s
6 Giovinazzi +1.737s
7 Verstappen +1.904s
8 Albon +2.422s
9 Gasly +2.481s
10 Sainz +2.542s
11 Grosjean +2.648s
12 Vettel +2.652s
13 Norris +2.900s
14 Ricciardo +3.124s
15 Latifi +3.272s
16 Magnussen +3.977s
Ricciardo looks as though, despite his earlier stoppage, that he's primed to clamber back into his Renault RS20 for a spot of extra running. That's reassuring.
Today's most-travelled driver Giovinazzi has moved up to P6 with a 1m17.469s on presumed C4s.
For those of you out there who can tell the time far more adeptly than us, there's less than an hour to go.
Vettel's also out on track, running at a similar pace to - but not faster than - his fastest lap from earlier.
We're up and running again, with four cars on the circuit - Hamilton, Stroll, Albon and Norris.
The Renault is now on the flatbed truck, concealed by the black cover-all. Hopefully we'll be back underway soon.
How about another testing livery from our Motorsport Images back catalogue? Here's Kimi Raikkonen in 2006, with a papaya MP4/21.

How about another testing livery from our Motorsport Images back catalogue? Here's Kimi Raikkonen in 2006, with a papaya MP4/21.

Red flag for Ricciardo's stoppage. That's our fourth today and fifth for the week, I believe.
Daniel Ricciardo's Renault, which was on such a nice C2 long run, is now stopped on track.
Hamilton's back into the pits, and right now it's looking quite likely that Bottas will end the first week of testing as the pace-setter.
Ricciardo's in the middle of a pretty nifty long run here - 21.038s, 21.080s, 21.213s, 21.048s, 21.306s, 21.339s, 21.478s, 21.449s. Metronome.

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe