After an interesting first day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona yesterday, it’s time to do it all again on Day 2 as the teams continue their preparation for the 2020 season. Join The Roar for live updates from 7:00pm (AEDT).
Mercedes topped the timesheets yesterday with the world champion, Lewis Hamilton, setting the fastest lap of a 1:16.976. However, it was Max Verstappen in his Red Bull who led the way in terms of mileage as he completed 168 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Verstappen also spun twice at the same corner – turn 13 – as he tried to get the maximum out of his Red Bull. He first dipped a wheel into the gravel trap, sending the car into a spin, then took too much kerb on the inside of turn 13, unsettling the car, which then spun across the runoff at turn 14. These incidents didn’t do him any harm and actually gave the Dutchman valuable evidence of how to push the car while keeping within the limits.
There are several questions that will hopefully be answered throughout day two.
Firstly, where is Ferrari’s pace? Did they simply decide to not worry about setting fastest lap times, instead concentrating on getting the laps in on long runs? And when will they show us how their lap times compare to the Silver Arrows, if at all?
Secondly, the midfield. Sergio Perez set the third fastest lap time in his Racing Point. Can the team continue this pace throughout testing or will the other midfield teams be able to claw back the advantage? Same goes for Alpha Tauri as Daniil Kvyat put in some good laps yesterday. It would be great to see them continue to do well too.
There are sixteen more hours’ worth of testing left to go this week, giving the teams plenty more time to explore their cars and analyse vast quantities of data before focus shifts to the first race of the season in Melbourne next month.
Join The Roar tonight from 7:00pm (AEDT) for live updates from the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
So thanks for joining me for day 2 of pre-season testing from the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The main headline to take away from today is Mercedes' Dual Axis Steering (DAS) where the steering wheel can be adjusted to change the toe to make the wheels straighter to improve straight line speed. Based on what Mercedes' Technical Director, James Allison, has said today, it is a legal system as the team have been in contact with the FIA for quite a while. It is an impressive system but there is still a little more to be learnt about it. For example, exactly how much advantage will it give Mercedes? Allison is holding his cards close to his chest at the moment though, as you would expect. Join me if you can tonight from 7.00pm AEDT for the final day of the first pre-season test. Until then, have a good day!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Raikkonen - 134 laps Perez - 145 laps Ricciardo - 41 laps Albon - 133 laps Gasly - 147 laps Vettel - 73 laps Russell - 116 laps Leclerc - 49 laps Hamilton - 106 laps Norris - 137 laps Grosjean - 158 laps Ocon - 52 laps Bottas - 77 laps
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
CHEQUERED FLAG
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Albon, Gasly, Vettel, Norris and Ocon are out on track. I'll give an updated lap count in five minutes' time - the timesheet shouldn't change though.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
GREEN FLAG WITH SIX MINUTES TO GO
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Well, there’s seven minutes to go and I don’t think we’re going to get much more happening so here’s your final classification. 1: Raikkonen: 1:17.091 (134 laps) 2: Perez: +0.256s (144 laps) 3: Ricciardo: +0.658s (41 laps) 4: Albon: +0.821s (128 laps) 5: Gasly: +1.030s (143 laps) 6: Vettel: +1.063s (69 laps) 7: Russell: +1.175s (116 laps) 8: Leclerc: +1.244s (49 laps) 9: Hamilton: +1.296s (106 laps) 10: Norris: +1.383s (133 laps) 11: Grosjean: +1.405s (158 laps) 12: Ocon: +1.466s (47 laps) 13: Bottas: +2.216s (77 laps)
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
12 minutes to go.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
I think it's unlikely we're going to get back underway here.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Raikkonen still stood by the car as he goes through the full shutdown procedure.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Definitely an ERS issue for Bottas - his car is cordoned off in the garage with 'DANGER - HIGH VOLTAGE - DO NOT ENTER' tape.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Raikkonen's car goes into anti-stall and then the power just cuts out. So I'm thinking complete loss of power at the moment. I think he's come to a stop at turn 8.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
The clock will continue to run down. It will not stop. We will still finish at 4am AEDT.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
RED FLAG IS OUT
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Kimi Raikkonen has stopped on the side of the track!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
A very good pit stop practice from McLaren - they're not as quick in the first week of testing but I would be pleased with that. The pit crews are coming to Barcelona next week for the second week of testing when we will also see those high performance runs to close the book that is 2020 pre-season testing. 22 minutes to go.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
An ERS issue for Bottas (Energy Recovery System) - Mercedes shouldn't be too worried with losing time. They've made the story of the day in the Dual Axis Steering (DAS) and have put in nearly 200 laps' worth of running today. What a day for Mercedes!
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
The McLaren mechanics are doing some stretches in the pit lane.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
The word from Mercedes (through Autosport) is that Bottas apparently has an electrical issue, which is why his day is now over.
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
HALF AN HOUR TO GO
Joshua Kerr
Roar Guru
Valtteri Bottas' day is also over - he won't be going out again. We can't assume that there are any problems though. A delivery of new parts came earlier so they could just be changing set-ups and changing parts - who knows? The only thing I can confirm is that the Finn is not coming back out on track in his Mercedes today.