Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel led a closely-matched field on the opening day of the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday.
Warm and sunny conditions prevailed throughout the two four-hour sessions in Spain, following last week’s inclement weather, allowing teams to rack up substantial mileage in representative conditions.
Vettel’s time of 1:20.396, set on Mediums during the morning session, remained unbeaten in the afternoon, as he finished the day with a mammoth 171 laps to his name.
Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) placed second and third, on Soft and Medium tyres respectively, as their best laps also came in the morning.
Bottas finished exactly two-tenths of a second behind Ferrari’s Vettel, with Verstappen just 0.053s further back.
The Dutchman caused a red flag when he stopped at Turn 1 during the afternoon session, but he was able to return to the pits after a brief interlude, concluding with 130 laps, equivalent to two Grand Prix distances.
Bottas handed over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon session and the reigning World Champion placed fourth, 0.412s behind Vettel, as he brought Mercedes’ combined mileage to 177 laps.
Pierre Gasly finished fifth for Toro Rosso, but the team spent the afternoon session in the pit lane, amid a brake system issue.
Kevin Magnussen finished sixth for Haas, ahead of Renault pair Nico Hulkenberg (who ran in the morning) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (afternoon).
Williams split running between Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll, the pair finishing ninth and 13th respectively, as Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10, in front of Marcus Ericsson.
McLaren, meanwhile, endured a frustrating day, as three stoppages punctuated Stoffel Vandoorne’s running, leaving him in 12th place, with only 38 laps to his name.
Vandoorne twice stopped during the morning session, once in the pit lane and once on track, due to an electrical shutdown, and completed just seven laps before lunch.
Vandoorne racked up the mileage after the break but came to a halt at Turn 3 midway through the afternoon running due to a loss of hydraulic pressure.
Vandoorne nonetheless finished just 1.550s behind pacesetter Vettel, with Stroll the only outlier, his quickest time almost a second slower than the Belgian’s best.
Testing will resume at 09:00 local time on Wednesday and run through to 18:00.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Tyre |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:20.396 |  |
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| 2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:20.596 | 0.200 |  |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:20.649 | 0.253 | |
| 4 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:20.973 | 0.577 | |
| 5 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:21.214 | 0.818 | |
| 6 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:21.298 | 0.902 | |
| 7 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:21.588 | 1.192 | |
| 8 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:21.738 | 1.342 | |
| 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:21.893 | 1.497 | |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:21.936 | 1.540 | |
| 11 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:21.946 | 1.550 |  |
| 12 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:22.331 | 1.935 | |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Williams |  |
