Bottas blazes in ‘trick’ Mercedes, Ferrari breaks down

Bottas fastest in the 'trick' Mercedes
Bottas fastest in the 'trick' Mercedes

Using Pirelli’s softest available C5 tire, Valtteri Bottas turned in the fastest time of the winter so far on the final morning of the opening 2020 Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona.

Using the 'trick' Mercedes steering Bottas put up a 1m15.732s and buried everyone.

While Mercedes was dominating, its hapless chief rival Ferrari found itself on the back foot after an engine issue brought Sebastian Vettel’s #5 Ferrari to a grinding halt.

The German’s SF1000 stopped at Turn 12 after losing power from the engine.

Esteban Ocon also used a set of Soft tires as he ended up 1.370s adrift of Bottas.

Lance Stroll was third-quickest as pink Mercedes Racing Point while Daniil Kvyat was fourth for the rebranded AlphaTauri squad.

Rounding out the top five was early morning pacesetter Verstappen, who lost some track time after damaging the floor on his Red Bull RB16 over the cubs at Turn 8.

Day 3 Mid-Day Times

POS DRIVER NAT TEAM TIME LAPS
1 Valtteri Bottas FIN Mercedes AMG Petronas 1m15.732s 65
2 Esteban Ocon FRA Renault F1 Team 1m17.102s 76
3 Lance Stroll CAN BWT Racing Point 1m17.338s 52
4 Daniil Kvyat RUS AlphaTauri Honda 1m17.427s 62
5 Max Verstappen NED Red Bull Racing 1m17.636s 86
6 Antonio Giovinazzi ITA Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen 1m18.035s 65
7 Carlos Sainz ESP McLaren F1 Team 1m18.274s 75
8 Romain Grosjean FRA Haas F1 Team 1m18.380s 48
9 Sebastian Vettel GER Scuderia Ferrari 1m18.384s 40
10 Nicholas Latifi CAN ROKiT Williams Racing 1m19.029s 44