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

Barcelona F1 testing: Red Bull's Max Verstappen fastest on Tuesday

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen ended the first day of the Barcelona Formula 1 test on top, pipping Renault's Carlos Sainz Jr by 0.034 seconds

Verstappen used hypersoft Pirellis to post his best time of 1m17.528s early in the final hour of running, relegating Sainz to second.

Sainz used hypersofts to set his time with just under two hours remaining, initially knocking Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari off top spot before Verstappen jumped both of them.

Vettel ended up third fastest and 0.131s off the pace on softs, with Romain Grosjean's pacesetting time from the morning, set on hypersofts, good enough to hold onto fourth fastest for Haas.

Force India test driver Nicholas Latifi improved several times in the final hour using hypersofts to secure fifth fastest, bumping Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton to sixth after the Spanish Grand Prix winner did not improve on his morning time set on the soft Pirellis.

McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne used supersofts for his best time in the final hour to go seventh.

Antonio Giovinazzi made a series of incremental improvements during the afternoon, ending up in eighth place, 2.165s down in his Sauber.

Williams debutant Oliver Rowland improved on his morning time late on with a 1m20.009s set on supersofts, and completed well over 100 laps.

McLaren and Force India both had second cars running for Pirelli testing, with Lando Norris fastest of the tyre testers in 10th place, despite a brief trip through the gravel in the morning, before handing over to Oliver Turvey for the afternoon.

George Russell was 11th in the Force India Pirelli test car, ahead of Sean Gelael in the Toro Rosso and Turvey.

A late red flag, caused by Giovinazzi, interrupted the running with just over 10 minutes to go, but the session swiftly resumed.

The first in-season test of 2018 concludes on Wednesday.

Tuesday times

Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Renault 1m17.528s - 148
2 Carlos Sainz Jr. Renault 1m17.562s 0.034s 119
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m17.659s 0.131s 136
4 Romain Grosjean Haas/Ferrari 1m18.449s 0.921s 129
5 Nicholas Latifi Force India/Mercedes 1m18.530s 1.002s 107
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m18.543s 1.015s 151
7 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren/Renault 1m18.981s 1.453s 85
8 Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber/Ferrari 1m19.693s 2.165s 135
9 Oliver Rowland Williams/Mercedes 1m20.009s 2.481s 121
10 Lando Norris McLaren/Renault 1m20.997s 3.469s 76
11 George Russell Force India/Mercedes 1m21.478s 3.950s 123
12 Sean Gelael Toro Rosso/Honda 1m21.935s 4.407s 50
13 Oliver Turvey McLaren/Renault 1m23.070s 5.542s 58


Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Ferrari Formula 1 team's tech push goes beyond banned winglets
Next article Vettel: Usual tyres in Spain would've been 'even worse' for Ferrari

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