Felipe Massa sets the pace for Williams as final F1 test gets underway
Felipe Massa was the star for Williams as testing resumed in Barcelona today after a four-day break. The Brazilian made up for the time lost with Lance Stroll’s incidents last week by logging a marathon 168 laps and topping the screens.
https://twitter.com/MassaFelipe19/status/839162398422478848
The big novelty of the day was the first appearance of Pascal Wehrlein at Sauber after the German was passed fit to return to the cockpit, although after completing 47 laps he handed the car back to Marcus Ericsson following the lunch break.
Mercedes and Renault also continued to share driving chores between their respective drivers, with Lewis Hamilton and Jolyon Palmer running in the morning, and Valtteri Bottas and Nico Hulkenberg taking over in the afternoon.
Massa set his best time of 1m19.726s on the supersoft tire in the morning session, the Brazilian just shy of the 1m19.705s benchmark achieved by Bottas on Thursday last week.
Daniel Ricciardo was back in the Red Bull and he also dipped in the 1m19s bracket, but on the ultrasoft. The other drive to break into the 1m19s was Sebastian Vettel, as Ferrari enjoyed another reliable day. The German achieved impressive mileage, matching Massa’s daily total of 168 laps.
"Generally I’m happy with what we got out of this morning and in terms of where we were last week I feel like the car is starting to come alive more," said Ricciardo. "This afternoon we focused more on longer runs. We only got a few in, but it was enough to know how the tyres work after a few laps. We definitely feel we can still get more out of the car – I think everyone can – but it’s looking alright. It’s now my third day in the car and from day one to day two and now day three, I’m more and more happy with it."
Hamilton’s morning included a relative modest 49 laps after floor damage led to an early finish, so that the car could be readied for Bottas. The team still logged 135 laps between the two drivers.
"I didn't get a massive amount of laps in this morning but the car was feeling similar to last week," stated Hamilton. "The track wasn't feeling great. We're still just trying to get as much running in as possible, it's still a work in progress. We're on target in terms of the laps that we've done and the mileage, but we're always searching for more performance. I think the car will start to come together this week. There's still bits coming in and we're improving all the time, but I'm confident by Melbourne we'll have the best car we can. We'll have all the upgrade parts, an understanding of the setup and where we need to put the car to make it fastest."
Behind Mercedes, Esteban Ocon was sixth fastest for Force India after the team’s best day thus far, while Hulkenberg was seventh after problems at Renault left Palmer without many laps in the morning.
"To complete more than 140 laps without issues is a good effort and allowed us to cover a lot of ground," said Ocon. "We did some long stints and also some performance runs, which were very interesting: we kept working on both the chassis and the tires, but we managed to include aero and engine work too. I can see we are making progress compared to last week: every time we go out we get to try new solutions and I feel we are moving in the right direction."
"Today I had a short morning before we had to stop for a precautionary power unit change," explained Palmer. "It wasn’t ideal but it’s certainly a long way from being the end of the world. We’re still in a good position and I feel confident for the season ahead. For sure, it would be nice to get some more laps and you never want to lose track time."
McLaren once again suffered badly, losing much of the day after an electrical issue led to a Honda power unit change in the morning. However, Stoffel Vandoorne was able to extend the day’s total to 80 laps.
"Losing track time is obviously not ideal, but when we were on track we actually managed to get a large chunk of our test program done, and we learned a lot more about the car today," said Vandoorne. "We tried a lot of different things with the aero, balance and setup, and also went through a lot of procedures and car behaviors that I will need to prepare in time for Australia.
"It hasn’t been the ideal way to start the second test, but considering the issue we’ve had, we’ve still managed to complete a good number of laps, and we go into tomorrow hoping for more track time and more solid data that we can take forward to Melbourne."
Testing will run for the next three days before the cars are dispatched to Melbourne.
Tuesday results:
1. Felipe Massa (Williams) 1m19.726s
2. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1m19.900s
3. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1m19.906s
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m20.456s [AM]
5. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 1m20.924s [PM]
6. Esteban Ocon (Force India) 1m21.347s
7. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) 1m21.589s [PM]
8. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) 1m21.676s
9. Dany Kvyat (Toro Rosso) 1m21.743s
10. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) 1m22.537s
11. Pascal Wehrlein (Sauber) 1m23.336s [AM]
12. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) 1m23.630s [PM]
13. Jolyon Palmer (Renault) 1m24.790s [AM]
