Ferrari on top on penultimate day pre-season testing
Published on 09 March 2017 by Mike Motilall
Sebastian Vettel topped the leaderboard on the seventh and penultimate day of the pre-season winter testing in Barcelona. The time the Ferrari-driver clocked in the early session, was not bettered in the afternoon. Behind him, Lewis Hamilton and Esteban Ocon finished in second and third. Red Bull Racing ends the day with Daniel Ricciardo in P6. After experiencing some issues yesterday, the Ozzie managed to pull off 128 laps today
Today Ricciardo had the same schedule Max had: short runs in the morning and long ones in the afternoon. Guillaume Rocqueling, Red Bull Racing’s chief race-engineering, indicated that yesterday.
“I am happy that it is over”, says Ricciardo at the end of the test. “I don’t think we were particularly quick today, but in any case I am happy that I am in good shape. We didn’t have any major issues today and I am happy with that. I have faith in the car, although we were much further a stray from our competitors today than we were last week. Anyway, the season starts in Melbourne and everything can be different once we get there. And yes, I do think that Ferrari is stronger at this moment.”
“We have made some progress but today didn’t quite go as we wanted it to with regard to the set-up. That is evident on the leaderboard. Luckily Max will be driving tomorrow, so we will be able to get just that little bit more of data on the car. To be honest, I have had it with testing, I want to go racing!”
It is evident that the teams are not waiting to get to Australia to find their limits. In the early session, Vettel impresses one and all by clocking a time, on the softs, that is fractional slower than the fastest time set, by Valtteri Bottas, during this pre-season test so far. Later on, he betters this by almost three tenths and does a 1:19.024. After lunch, the German focusses, like some other drivers, on the longer runs and race simulation. The time set by him is not bettered and the Ferrari-driver has 156 laps to his name at the end of the day, more than two complete race distances.
Despite that Nico Hülkenberg has been scheduled for the afternoon session at Renault, it is Jolyon Palmer who is driving the R.S.17 at three ‘o clock. This has probably to do with the fact that he hasn’t been able to make some mileage during the morning session. However, the car halts at turn ten in the afternoon, ending his day of testing.
With still two-and-a-half-hour to go, Daniil Kvyat also triggers a red flag. The Russian parks his Toro Rosso just before turn five, after his car halts. The car is quickly retrieved causing the session to get back underway after a few minutes. Kvyat is able to continue on with less than an hour on the clocks.
For McLaren it seems to be another bad start of the season again. The entire Winter things are not working out for the English team and today there are multiple problems again. Vandoorne’s car halts twice during the morning session, triggering two red flags. After lunch the McLaren is again for an extended period of time in the pit box with electronic issues. The moments they are able to run the car, only short runs are done in order to gather as much data as possible. To the 32 laps the Belgian does in the morning session, only 16 are added after lunch.
As oppose to McLaren and Renault, it has become a very productive day for many teams. Almost every team covers more than 100 laps and are able to focus on the final day of testing with a positive feeling. Their final chance to prepare themselves for the coming season.
Max Verstappen will take over control from Ricciardo tomorrow. Today was his last day in the RB13 till the Grand Prix-weekend in Australia.
Pre-Season Test 2 - Circuit de Barcelona-Cataluyna - Thursday 9 March 2017
RESULTS DAY 3 – Afternoon
1 S. Vettel Ferrari 1:19.024 US 156
2 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.352 US 52
3 E. Ocon Force India 1:20.161 US 137
4 D. Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:20.416 SS 94
5 K. Magnussen Haas 1:20.504 US 119
6 D. Ricciardo Red Bull 1:20.824 S 128
7 S. Vandoorne McLaren 1:21.348 US 48
8 V. Bottas Mercedes 1:21.819 S 95
9 P. Wehrlein Sauber 1:22.347 SS 44
10 J. Palmer Renault 1:22.418 S 53
11 M. Ericsson Sauber 1:23.330 S 88
12 F. Massa Williams 1:24.443 M 80
13 L. Stroll Williams 1:24.863 S 85
