Winter Testing Barcelona – Day 5: McLaren Struggling, Sebastian Vettel Faster than Valtteri Bottas on Mediums

After the first four days marked by challenging weather conditions, the 2018 Formula 1 cars were back on the Barcelona circuit to compete in the last four days of pre-season testing.

For this fifth session of the 2018 winter tests, the drivers on board the single-seaters were: Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Sergio Pérez (Force India), Sergey Sirotkin (Williams), Nico Hülkenberg (Renault), Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso), Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren), Kevin Magnussen (Haas), and Marcus Ericsson (Sauber). Three teams chose to alternate two drivers. Specifically, Mercedes sent Lewis Hamilton on track in the afternoon, Renault did the same with Carlos Sainz, and finally Williams with Lance Stroll.

Fortunately for the entire Formula 1 lineup, the conditions were quite good to start the morning, with 9°C in the air and 19°C on the track. This would allow the tires to be brought up to temperature quickly and thus see cars on the track promptly.

Only Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes immediately hit the track with a series of fast laps. After four laps of constant improvements, the Finn set an initial benchmark of 1:23.126. After a quarter of an hour, only the Sauber hadn’t completed any laps. Another quarter of an hour later, Marcus Ericsson took to the track for the first time in the Sauber, and Sirotkin completed a lap in 1:24.487. Shortly after, Bottas once again improved on medium tires, clocking a stellar lap of 1:20.756. At the same time, the Red Bull driven by Max Verstappen posted some interesting initial times on softs, with the best mark at 1:21.587.

#F1Testing update: we suffered a power shutdown during Stoff’s last run, meaning we lost data. The team are investigating, but we’ll be back out as soon as we can. pic.twitter.com/OYQxEZ8OKm

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) 6 mars 2018

The first red flag of the morning was triggered after an hour of sessions, by Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren stopped at the end of the straight. McLaren later indicated it was an electronic problem. The Belgian’s car was cleared in a few minutes. This briefly pushed Marcus Ericsson and Sergio Pérez onto the track. But more interestingly, Verstappen on ultra-softs, Sebastian Vettel on softs, and also Valtteri Bottas on softs as well. The Dutchman improved his time to 1:21.477, while Sebastian Vettel briefly took the lead with a 1:20.653 before Valtteri Bottas went ahead again with a 1:20.631.

It was then Pierre Gasly’s turn in his Honda-powered Toro Rosso to complete laps on soft tires. During his 16-lap stint, the Frenchman set a personal best of 1:20.973. During this interval, Kevin Magnussen, Marcus Ericsson, and Nico Hülkenberg decided to take to the track. The results were a best lap of 1:22.474 for the Haas driver, 1:24.290 for the Sauber driver, and an initial lap of 1:31.524 for the Renault driver. After two hours, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, and Marcus Ericsson were the only ones to have improved their times. Subsequently, Ericsson managed to improve his times on mediums, clocking a 1:22.838, just like Sirotkin with a 1:22.643 and Sergio Pérez with a 1:22.056.

GREEN FLAG

We’re up and running again after a brief detour through the gravel for Perez#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/7TPA9XI0Ia

— Formula 1 (@F1) 6 mars 2018

Around 11:30 a.m., a second red flag was briefly waved due to some gravel left on the track by Sergio Pérez’s Force India, which had a harmless off at turn four. Following this interlude, Sergey Sirotkin’s Williams improved to 1:21.588, as did Nico Hülkenberg with a time of 1:24.313. It was then Sebastian Vettel’s turn to come within 14 thousandths of Valtteri Bottas’s best time. Next, the Red Bull got within 6 hundredths of Bottas. Moments later, Renault made up for its slow start to the day with an improvement for Hülkenberg at 1:21.378, before Sebastian Vettel took the best time with 1:20.396.

Just before the lunch break, we mainly witnessed Verstappen’s series of laps, which allowed Red Bull to complete 85 laps this morning. Just before the flag was lowered, the McLaren finally showed up after more than three hours.

At 2 PM, operations resumed with Stoffel Vandoorne, Sergio Pérez, and Lewis Hamilton (who took over from Valtteri Bottas) on track. The four-time world champion quickly set an initial benchmark with a time of 1.21.419. At the same time, Carlos Sainz, who had replaced Nico Hülkenberg in the Renault, hit the track to register an initial time of 1.23.437. Meanwhile, Gasly, Vandoorne, and Hamilton continued to grind the asphalt. After everyone returned to the pits, silence descended on the track.

The Ferrari and the Red Bull were also approaching this mark before Vandoorne and Magnussen joined them. The 100 laps were quickly reached for Vettel and Verstappen. The afternoon was definitely calm with brief appearances of drivers on the track. Their respective teams were surely analyzing the collected data and making adjustments to the cars. The atmospheric conditions were ideal at this time of day with a good 17°C in the air and 29°C on the track.

It was enough to say that the afternoon was calm for a third red flag to be waved due to Stoffel Vandoorne’s McLaren stopping at turn three. Clearly, the curse seemed to continue for the Woking team. The green flag was redeployed about ten minutes later, once the orange car was cleared. Then, the F1 cars of Vettel, Hamilton, Ericsson, and Sainz appeared on the track.

The Spanish driver from Renault was conducting race simulations almost 1 hour and 30 minutes before the end of the day to accumulate kilometers. However, this stint was interrupted by a new red flag triggered this time by Max Verstappen in his Red Bull. It seemed that the Dutch driver experienced the same problem as Vandoorne earlier, namely a hydraulic issue. Once the session restarted, the Ferrari, Renault, Williams (with Lance Stroll on board), and Force India immediately left the pits. We then learned that Kevin Magnussen had soon returned to the track after experiencing an ERS (energy recovery system) problem. Sergio Pérez rewarded us a few moments later with the first improvement in lap time in a while, clocking a 1.21.868 which allowed him to move up to eighth position of the day.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel had already covered a distance equivalent to two Spanish Grand Prix and remained at the top of the timesheet. An hour before the end of this session, Lewis Hamilton completed a lap in 1:20.941, equivalent to a fourth overall position. 50 minutes before the end of the day, Sebastian Vettel continued his marathon in his Ferrari SF71H.

With more than half an hour of track time left for the drivers, the German was already flirting with the 150 laps. He was not alone on the track, as Kevin Magnussen returned alongside Lewis Hamilton, Marcus Ericsson, and finally Lance Stroll on hyper-softs. At Red Bull, they hoped to send Max Verstappen back on track before the end of the session. Note that Pierre Gasly’s Toro Rosso has not left the garage since the break. Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz were expected to join the other drivers as Vettel finally returned to the pits.

A 10 minutes from the end, Sebastian Vettel returned to the track for his 160th lap as the Red Bull appeared for the final moments. As expected, the last minutes offered no time improvement.

Plenty of laps on the board all round today 💪

Here’s everything that went down on day one of the second test#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/CsPCVrdu7c

— Formula 1 (@F1) 6 mars 2018

This is how the first day of the second week of testing ends, hoping for similar weather conditions tomorrow.