Sebastian Vettel repeated Daniel Ricciardo’s achievement from Monday by putting Ferrari top of both the timings and the lap count on the second day of testing in Barcelona.
On a day when very low temperatures in Catalonia again impacted run plans, the German, getting his first taste of the SF71H, completing 100 laps with a best of 1:19.673s on the Soft compound tyres.
That came during a stint of qualifying-style runs in the afternoon, which saw the four-time world champion go for a quick time every other lap. Vettel would also cause a brief red flag after spinning at Turn 2 on an earlier run.
With teams largely restricted to aero runs in the morning due to the weather it was around the lunch break, which was cancelled to allow an extra hour or running in the ‘heat’ of the day, before any serious lap times were set.
It also meant Mercedes kept Valtteri Bottas in the car throughout the day, instead of switching to Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, and the Finn would post the second-best time in the W09, the only other driver to dip below the 1:20 mark.
After Fernando Alonso’s moment on Day 1, Stoffel Vandoorne again as relatively high on the timesheet in third, albeit using the new Hypersoft tyre, but also among the lowest in distance covered with only 37 laps in the morning as the Belgian didn’t emerge at all in the afternoon.
On his first day in the RB14, Max Verstappen lost some of the morning to a leak in the fuel system in his Red Bull but made up a solid amount in the afternoon with a solid 67 laps and the fourth best time.
Carlos Sainz was sixth completing the trio of Renault-powered cars with Pierre Gasly continuing Toro Rosso and Honda’s good start to testing with 82 laps and the sixth fastest time some 1.7 seconds slower than Vettel.
Williams would split their day between Sergey Sirotkin and Robert Kubica and it was the Pole who was three-tenths faster in the better conditions in seventh with the Russian race driver eighth, both combining for a team best of 99 laps on Tuesday.
Esteban Ocon was ninth in the Force India ahead of F2 champion Charles Leclerc as the Monegasque made his first public appearance behind the wheel of a Sauber.
He would end the day just 0.007s clear of Kevin Magnussen who rounded out the timings in the Haas.
