Valtteri Bottas returned to the summit of the timesheets on day two of the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Bottas bettered his best time of pre-season testing thus far to a 1m19.310s on the super-soft tyres as teams continued to find speed and lower the fuel loads.
Williams continued to look strong in the hands of Felipe Massa. The Brazilian completed 63 laps in the morning session before handing over to team-mate Lance Stroll and ended the day just a tenth off Bottas’ benchmark albeit on the ultra-soft tyres. Team-mate Stroll enjoyed an error-free afternoon session, completing 53 laps and ending the day in fifth place.
A second back was Kimi Raikkonen in third. The Finn was only able to complete 53 laps in the Ferrari after he spun into the gravel at Turn 3 ending his session 90 minutes early.
Next up was Max Verstappen in fourth. Verstappen completed the most laps of anyone in the RB13, 102 laps in total however he stopped out on track with 30 minutes on the clock causing a brief red flag stoppage.
Three-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton returned to the cockpit of the W08 in the afternoon session. He mainly focused on longer runs including a consistent 20-lap stint on the ultra-soft tyres and ended the day in sixth place ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Force India’s Sergio Perez – who completed 100 laps.
Toro Rosso and Haas were just short of a century of laps in the hands of Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean while Pascal Wehrlein continued to acclimatise to the new Sauber C36 after missing the first test through injuries sustained at the Race of Champions in January.
It was another frustrating day for McLaren-Honda after Fernando Alonso could only complete 46 laps and was well down the timesheets in 12th.
