Bottas tops Wednesday times as Raikkonen crashes

Bottas out in front

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas led the way during the second day of the second and final pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen crashed out in the afternoon.

Bottas recorded a lap of 1:19.310, the fastest time of the six test days held to date, on the red-banded compound, before also setting rapid laps on the Ultra Soft tires.

Bottas' time was 0.110s quicker than Williams' Felipe Massa, before both drivers handed over to their respective team-mates, Lewis Hamilton and Lance Stroll, for the four-hour afternoon session.

Ferrari endured its most fraught day of a relatively incident-free pre-season so far, amid a technical delay and an off for Raikkonen.

Raikkonen lost time in the morning session as Ferrari undertook a fluid systems check on the SF70H, though he re-emerged and set the third best time on Softs.

Raikkonen's running came to a premature end with two hours of the day remaining when he lost control of his car through Turn 3 and spun through the gravel, clipping the barriers in the process.

Raikkonen crashes the Ferrari

He was able to walk away from the incident, though the session was red-flagged while his car, which sustained damage to the bodywork, was recovered.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen ended the day fourth fastest, with his afternoon running delayed while the RB13 underwent a power unit change.

Verstappen nonetheless completed 101 laps, the most of any driver, before he brought out the red flags with 20 minutes remaining when his car came to a halt at Turn 13.

His stricken car was promptly recovered, with the session subsequently extended by five minutes, in order to make up for the stoppage.

Valtteri Bottas:
It was another good half-day in the car for me. We managed to complete our program as planned and I have to say that I felt much better in the car today with the changes we've made. We're definitely making good progress as a team and I'm feeling more and more comfortable in the car every time I go out on track.

We were focusing on shorter runs today. In the first part of the morning we did lots of aero tests to evaluate some upgrades and everything seems to be going in a positive direction. There's still plenty of work to do so we need to maximise the next two days of testing.

Fastest laps don't matter in testing. What matters is where you are when you get to Melbourne. I'm just pleased we managed to complete the full programme. I learned so much from today's running. Now I'm just concentrating on tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton:
It's been a pretty good day, nice and smooth with no issues. There is still a lot of work to be done but on the whole, it's been another productive day for the team.

F1 is always fun. The cars are always amazing. But this car… it's faster and it's more of a challenge to extract everything from it. I love that I get to do this.

It was really great to see the fans with their banners in the grandstand this afternoon, so a big shout-out to everyone who came out to support us today.

Felipe Massa:

It was a good morning. We completed all of our programs and, like yesterday, I had a good feeling in the car. We’re happy with everything we tried in terms of set-up and trying different tires. I’ve had a very good day and a half, but hopefully this is just the beginning and we can finish testing well. I’m very happy with what I’ve seen and what I feel in the car. It’s still difficult to know where we are compared to the others, but the car is definitely looking positive.

Wednesday Results