Bottas tops Day Two on supersoft tyres with Lewis Hamilton second on softs; Haas slide down mileage tables after turbocharger woe
Saturday 5 March 2016 10:51, UK
Valtteri Bottas gave Williams their first appearance at the top of the timesheet in 2016 as they began to show their hand on day two of the final Barcelona test.
Bottas completed qualifying-style simulations on the soft and supersoft tyres in the afternoon session and ended up fastest from Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by 0.361 seconds.
The Finn's best lap of 1:23.261 on supersofts was the fifth quickest of the winter.
"They [Mercedes] are at the moment in their own league, that is the fact at this stage of the season," Bottas said. "I think we are there or thereabouts with Ferrari and Red Bull."
Hamilton ran in the morning and his laps were the best F1's triple world champion has set since testing began last week - although not as fast as team-mate Rosberg's from Day One on either the medium or soft tyre.
"I got my laps in and I've got an understanding where the car is good and where the car isn't good," Hamilton told Sky Sports News HQ after completing 73 laps in total.
"But generally testing has been great."
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Hamilton's soft tyre time of 1:23.622 was six tenths slower than Rosberg managed on the same compound on Tuesday, but the particularly large gap would appear to point towards a difference in fuel or car settings.
With Mercedes continuing to split their drivers' running in half, Rosberg took over the W07 for the afternoon and completed a full race simulation as the team again piled on the mileage. Hamilton completed 73 laps before Rosberg added 91 more.
Sky Sports F1's schedule for the second Barcelona test
McLaren also enjoyed another positive day as Jenson Button took over the MP4-31 from Fernando Alonso. The Briton took the soft tyres to fifth place and again racked up more than 100 laps. His best lap time was 1.5 seconds slower than Hamilton on the same compound.
Running an updated version of Honda's new-for-2016 engine this week, team chief Eric Boullier said the package was showing "more potential so far" ahead of further refinements ahead of the season-opening Australian GP.
Meanwhile, third place on the timesheet went to Renault's Kevin Magnussen after the Dane lapped on the supersofts in the morning. He then switched to a race simulation in the afternoon, ending on 126 laps.
After running on Pirelli's quicker tyres last week, Ferrari have stayed with the slower medium tyre so far this week and Vettel's best of 1:24.611 was good enough for fourth place. However, the lap was quickest the new SF16-H has managed on the white-walled compound so far and within four tenths of Mercedes' winter benchmark.
However, two of Ferrari's engine customers enjoyed largely forgettable days. While Sauber completed only 55 laps, Haas failed to register a single timed lap due to a turbo failure.
The American newcomers had earned plaudits for their performance last week but the start of the VF-16's second week in action has proved more troubled. After a fuel pump problem restricted Esteban Gutierrez to just 23 laps on Tuesday, the discovery of an glitch when changing the turbocharger in the Ferrari power unit meant the Mexican was on track for just one slow installation lap.
"It's been very frustrating," admitted team owner Gene Haas. "The weather is perfect, the track is good, we want to be out there. We had an exceptionally good week last week and this is more of what a typical week would be."
Running Ferrari's 2015 power unit. Toro Rosso again enjoyed trouble-free running with seventh-fastest Carlos Sainz completing the most laps for any one driver - 166. On the same medium tyre compound, just 0.065 seconds separated the Italian team from senior sibling Red Bull on the timesheet.
"The two sure things for now are that Mercedes and Ferrari are the top two," said Daniel Ricciardo after a Day Two programme which included a race simulation and 135 laps.
"Behind that it looks close. Williams... we are more less there close to them. And then the rest, who knows? Toro Rosso, all these other teams…it could be pretty close behind Mercedes and Ferrari.
"The question is, how far in front are Mercedes and Ferrari?"
Barcelona Test Two, Day Two timesheet
1. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:23.261, supersoft tyres, 108 laps
2. Lewis Hamilton, 1:23.622, soft tyres, 73 laps
3. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:23.933, supersoft tyres, 126 laps
4. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:24.611, medium tyres, 151 laps
5. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:25.183, soft tyres, 121 laps
6. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:25.235, medium tyres, 135 laps
7. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:25.300, medium tyres, 166 laps
8. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:26.188, medium tyres, 128 laps
9. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:26.298, medium tyres, 91 laps;
10. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:27.064, soft tyres, 79 laps
11. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:27.862, medium tyres, 55 laps
12. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, No time, 1 lap
