Bottas quickest as Ferrari impress on third day of Barcelona test
Published on 01 March 2017 by Stefan Meens
Valtteri Bottas was the fastest man on the third day of the first pre-season test at Barcelona. The Mercedes driver clocked a 1:19.705, leaving Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel two tenths adrift. After a productive morning, Red Bull Racing had a less fortunate afternoon with Daniel Ricciardo only completing 22 laps due to an exhaust issue. In the morning, the Australian managed 48 laps.
“Today was better than the first test day”, said Ricciardo, who finished the day in third. “We drove more laps and learned more about the car and the tires. Unfortunately, we lost time due to exhaust issues but apart from that it was a good day.”
Sebastian Vettel was the most productive driver with 139 laps on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The German spent much of the day running on the medium-compound Pirellis. He clocked his best time in the morning.
Nevertheless, Ferrari’s impressive reliability record was slightly spoiled near the end of the day when Vettel stopped close to the start/finish line with ten minutes left on the clock, bringing out the red flag.
Lewis Hamilton focused on a race simulation after taking over from Bottas. The Mercedes ace used the medium and soft tires and set a best time of 1m22.175s on the latter compound.
His run was interrupted by two red flags. First, Carlos Sainz’ Toro Rosso stranded at Turn 4, before Lance Stroll crashed his Williams for the second time this week. The Canadian lost the car exiting turn 5 and damaged the front of the FW40, duly ending the rookie’s running for the day.
On Thursday, Max Verstappen is once again taking over driving duties for Red Bull Racing. On the fourth and final day of the test, the circuit will be artificially flooded in the morning. This will give the teams the opportunity to test the Pirelli wet weather compounds. The afternoon is scheduled for normal dry weather running.
Pre-Season Test 1 - Circuit de Barcelona-Cataluyna - Wednesday 1 March 2017
RESULTS DAY 3 1 V. Bottas Mercedes 1:19.705 US 75 2 S. Vettel Ferrari 1:19.952 S 139 3 D. Ricciardo Red Bull 1:21.153 S 70 4 J. Palmer Renault 1:21.396 S 51 5 N. Hulkenberg Renault 1:21.791 S 42 6 M. Ericsson Sauber 1:21.824 SS 126 7 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.090 S 95 8 R. Grosjean Haas 1:22.118 SS 56 9 L. Stroll Williams 1:22.351 S 98 10 F. Alonso McLaren 1:22.598 US 72 11 C. Sainz Toro Rosso 1:23.540 M 32 12 A. Celis Jr. Force India 1.23.568 SS 71 13 D. Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:23.952 M 31
