Bottas puts Mercedes on top mid-day in Barcelona

Icy cold conditions on Tuesday morning led to limited mileage for teams and drivers on the second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.

Few ventured out at the outset when the lights went green at 9:00am, or if they did it was for the odd installation lap only.

In order to make the most of the day however, teams agreed to extend the session by an hour, scrapping the scheduled one-hour lunch break as a result.

Mid-day, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas had recorded the fastest lap on Pirelli’s soft tyre, clocking in with a 1:20.270 which put him 0.055 seconds clear of second-place man Stoffel Vandoorne in the McLaren MCL33 running on the ultra-soft compound.

    Gallery: Day 2 of pre-season testing in Barcelona

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was third on the timesheet, putting 35 laps under his belt and edging out Renault’s Carlos Sainz in P4.

Further down the order, Sergey Sirotkin followed in fifth as he conducted more data acquisition for Williams, and before handing over the FW41 to Robert Kubica.

Esteban Ocon was sixth for Force India in his first day behind the wheel of the team’s new VJM11, while Pierre Gasly enjoyed a trouble-free run for Sauber.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen completed just six laps, but a mechanical issue in the form of a fuel leak prevented Max Verstappen from taking lapping more than three times the Circuit de Catalunya.

Testing continues this afternoon in slightly less freezing conditions but with an overcast sky which could spell rain sometime in the next few hours.

You can follow the session live here.

Pre-season test Day 2 – Midday

Pos Driver Team Time Laps Tyre

1
 Bottas
 Mercedes
1:20.270
43
S

2
 Vandoorne
 McLaren
1:20.325
28
HS

3
 Vettel
 Ferrari
1:21.341
35
M

4
 Sainz
 Renault
1:22.424
17
S

5
 Sirotkin
 Williams
1:22.844
31
S

6
 Ocon
 Force India
1:22.907
20
S

7
 Gasly
 Toro Rosso
1:24.488
31
S

8
 Leclerc
 Sauber
1:24.945
52
S

9
 Magnussen
 Haas
1:42.276
6
S

10
 Verstappen
 Red Bull
No time
3
M

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Click Here: essendon bombers guernsey 2019