F1 Testing 2: McLaren fastest but Red Bull shine on Day 1

Lando Norris produced a late flyer to put McLaren top of the timesheets in the final hour on Day 1 of the second Formula 1 test in Spain.

The Briton used the C5 Pirelli tyres and posted a 1m17.709s, but it was far from a perfect day as Norris also caused two red flags, the second immediately after setting the quickest time.

His first stoppage came after a loss of hydraulic pressure in the morning, forcing him to park up at Turn 3.

Pierre Gasly set the most impressive time on Tuesday, however, as the Red Bull driver beat Ferrari’s best time on the C3 tyre by over 0.3s and would finish second, just 0.006s behind the McLaren.

The Frenchman also completed the most laps for a single driver with 136, although Renault led the team count with 157 tours between Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo.

Red Bull’s reliability with Honda was in contrast to a problematic day for their fellow top three rivals Mercedes and Ferrari.

Though Sebastian Vettel ran trouble-free, finishing fourth overall, teammate Charles Leclerc would miss much of the morning as the team completed a cooling system check.

Then, at Mercedes, it was vice versa as Lewis Hamilton’s strong morning was immediately undone by an oil pressure problem forcing an engine change in the afternoon, limiting Valtteri Bottas to just 7 laps.

Between Gasly and Vettel was Lance Stroll in the Racing Point, as the Silverstone-based outfit enjoyed a productive day with 82 laps on the board for the Canadian.

Morning pacesetter Antonio Giovinazzi slipped down to fifth for Alfa Romeo, with Alex Albon jumping up to sixth in the Toro Rosso thanks to a late run on the C4 tyre compound.

Haas was another team to show solid progress as the reliability niggles of last week were gone and Kevin Magnussen surpassed 130 laps with the eighth best time.

Perhaps the most relief will be at Williams where George Russell managed 119 laps, more than doubling their total for the whole of testing so far.

Only the ninth best time after using the C5 tyres might be a worry, but there’s still time to look at the performance.

As mentioned, Renault focused on long runs with both drivers, that meant Ricciardo and Hulkenberg were only 10th and 13th respectively.

Ironically, either side of the two Mercedes’ who, despite their plethora of upgrades, continue to be unspectacular. The saving grace for Hamilton and Bottas was their best times came on the C2 tyre meaning there’s a lot more performance in hand.

 Full standings for Day 2 can be seen below: