Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of pre-season testing to top the timesheets as the testing came to a close in Barcelona today. The Ferrari driver set a time of 1:18.643 to eclipse Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen by the sizeable margin of eight tenths of a second.

Räikkönen’s best time of testing came during the morning session and was set on supersoft tyres. But while the Finn gave the Maranello squad plenty to cheer it wasn’t a perfect outing. In the afternoon session Räikkönen encountered a technical issue and his car ground to a halt off track as he tried to limp it to the pits. He did return to the action late on but it was tokenistic and he ended the day with 111 laps and the quickest time to his name.

Second place on the timesheet went to Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver also focused on shorter runs in the morning and longer stints in the afternoon and as such his performance run came in the opening period, with his time of 1:19.483 also being set on supersoft tyres.

Yesterday Daniil Kvyat’s final day at the wheel of Toro Rosso’s STR12 netted the Russian the day’s fourth-quickest lap and today team-mate Carlos Sainz wwnt one better, grabbing P3 with a supersoft run just under four tenths of a second off Verstappen’s pace.

Again, though, it wasn’t all plain sailing and Sainz brought out the red flags in the afternoon when he cruised to a halt on the start-finish straight.

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas finished fourth, just five thousandths of a second ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who ran in the afternoon for the champions setting a best time of 1:19.850 on ultrasofts.

With the bulk of teams turning their attention to longer runs in the afternoon the morning time set by Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was good enough to keep him in sixth place, ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez and Renault team-mate Jolyon Palmer, both of whom also set their best times in the morning.

Williams rookie was ninth-quickest and the Canadian, who will make his race debut in Melbourne in two weeks’ time, racked up the day’s largest lap total with 132. Haas’ Romain Grosjean rounded out the top 10 for Haas, with McLaren's Fernando Alonso in 11^th place ahead of Sauber teammates Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein.

2017 Formula One Testing – Barcelona Test 2, Day Four
1 K. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:18.634 111
2 M. Verstappen Red Bull 1:19.438 0.804 71
3 C. Sainz Toro Rosso 1:19.837 1.203 132
4 V. Bottas Mercedes 1:19.845 1.211 53
5 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.850 1.216 54
6 N. Hulkenberg Renault 1:19.885 1.251 45
7 S. Perez Force India 1:20.116 1.482 128
8 J. Palmer Renault 1:20.205 1.571 43
9 L. Stroll Williams 1:20.335 1.701 132
10 R. Grosjean Haas 1:21.110 2.476 76
11 F. Alonso McLaren 1:21.389 2.755 43
12 M. Ericsson Sauber 1:21.670 3.036 59
13 P. Wehrlein Sauber 1:23.527 4.893 42

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas set the fastest time so far on day three of the first F1 test in Barcelona but Ferrari continued to impress, with Sebastian Vettel getting to within three tenths of the Finn on a harder compound tyre.

Bottas’s best time of 1:19.75 came ion the morning session when the new Mercedes recruit bolted on a set of Pirelli’s purple-banded ultrasoft tyres. The time was eye-catching but Sebastian Vettel’s afternoon lap just 0.247s adrift of the Mercedes man was perhaps more significant, given that it was set on softy tyres, two steps up Pirelli’s range.

For the third day running Ferrari managed impressive reliability, with Vettel logging 139 laps. It wasn’t perfect, however, as the German’s car ground to a halt close to the start-finish straight with less than 10 minutes left in the session.

Vettel’s tally was put in the shade by Mercedes, however. Bottas 75 laps in the morning before handing over to Lewis Hamilton and the Briton worked through a further 95 laps during afternoon race simulations to give the champions a day total of 170 laps.

Hamilton’s long running in the second half of the session and his use of medium and soft compounds meant that he ended the day in P8 on the timesheet with a best time of 1:22.175.

Behind Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo was third-fastest for Red Bull Racing, thougn it was another day of frustration for the Australian. On day one a sensor issue and a battery problem disrupted Ricciardo’s running and today he was restricted to 70 laps in total. Forty-eight of those came in the morning as the team worked through aero tests but the Australian was only to add 22 more in the afternoon as an exhaust problem halted the team in its tracks.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer slotted into fourth place a little over two tenths behind the French outfit’s customer team. Palmer later handed over driving duties to team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, with the former Force India driver taking fifth place just under four tenths of a second off the Briton’s pace. Marcus Ericsson was sixth for Sauber ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Hamilton.

Ninth place on the timesheet went to Williams’ Lance Stroll. It was another tough day on the learning curve for the Canadian rookie, however. The Montreal native crashed out on first day in the Williams FW40 and after an off just before the lunch break today, the afternoon session saw him crash out again, the youngster hitting the barriers on the exit of Turn 5. The reigning FIA F3 European champion had, however, posted a solid 98 lap total before the incident.

Tenth quickest was Fernando Alonso who also put 72 laps on the board for McLaren, three more than the team’s total over the first two days in Barcelona. Carlos Sainz was 11^th for Toro Rosso, while Force India tester Alfonso Celis propped up the time with a lap almost four seconds adrift of pace-setting Bottas.

2017 Formula One Testing – Barcelona Test 1, Day 3

1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:19.705s – 75
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:19.952s 0.247s 139
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:21.153s 1.448s 70
4 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:21.396s 1.691s 51
5 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:21.791s 2.086s 42
6 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:21.824s 2.119s 126
7 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:22.118s 2.413s 56
8 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:22.175s 2.470s 95
9 Lance Stroll Williams 1:22.351s 2.646s 98
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:22.598s 2.893s 72
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:23.540s 3.835s 32
12 Alfonso Celis Force India 1:23.568s 3.863s 71
13 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:23.952s 4.247s 31

Sebastian Vettel ended the penultimate day of pre-season Formula One testing by setting the fastest time of the seven days completed so far in Barcelona.

Yesterday, Mercedes Valtteri Bottas had set an impressive benchmark of 1:19.310 on supersoft tyres, but this morning Vettel smashed past that marker by almost three tenths of a second, using the Pirelli’s ultrasoft tyre compound. The Ferrari’s driver’s time was almost three seconds quicker than last year’s Spanish Grand Prix pole position time of 1:22.000 set by Nico Rosberg. Vettel might have gone even faster on his way to P1 but the German backed off in the final sector, somewhat masking what the new Ferrari is capable of. Ferrari again showed impressive reliability with Vettel posting the day’s largest lap total of 156.

Second place went to Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who finished just over three tenths adrift of the four-time champion. The Briton also used the ultrasofts to set his best time.

Hamilton handed over driver duties to Bottas in the afternoon and following the Briton’s 52 laps in the morning, the Finn added another 95 to the team’s tally with longer stints later in the day.

Esteban Ocon gave Force India cause for optimism with the day’s third best time, again set on ultrasoft tyres. The Frenchman set a best time of 1:20.161 and posted the second largest lap total, getting through 137 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Force India driver ended the day 0.255 ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. After bringing out the red flags midway through the morning session, the Russian enjoyed a decent afternoon and ended the day with a lap total of 94. Kvyat’s best time was set on supersoft tyres.

US team Haas F1 also had a good outing, with new recruit Kevin Magnussen looking competitive in fifth place with a best time of 1:20.504 set on supersoft tyres.

Sixth place went to Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian got through a race simulation in the afternoon but afterwards was cautious about his team’s pace in the run-up to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

“The race sim was OK. I don’t think we were going particularly fast, but it was good for me to get the laps in, to put myself through it physically,” he said. “In terms of our performance, I would say on day one of this week’s test we looked competitive, within a couple of tenths, but today it was maybe a little more. I do think our true pace is closer though. We have a bit to learn still, but I think Melbourne will be another story and I think we’ll see a bit more on both the power and aero side. I think we’ll be competitive.”

McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne took seventh place, though the Belgian twice brought out the red flags in the morning as his car was hit by electrical problems. He managed just 48 laps in total.

With Bottas eighth fastest, ninth place went to Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein, with the top 10 being rounded out by Renault’s Jolyon Palmer. It was another tricky day for Renault, however, as the Briton’s car ground to a halt in the afternoon following an earlier engine change. Behind Palmer on the timesheet were Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the Williams pair of Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll.

2017 Formula One Testing – Barcelona Test 2, Day Three

1 S. Vettel Ferrari 1:19.024 156
2 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.352 0.328 52
3 E. Ocon Force India 1:20.161 1.137 137
4 D. Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:20.416 1.392 94
5 K. Magnussen Haas 1:20.504 1.480 119
6 D. Ricciardo Red Bull 1:20.824 1.800 128
7 S. Vandoorne McLaren 1:21.348 2.324 48
8 V. Bottas Mercedes 1:21.819 2.795 95
9 P. Wehrlein Sauber 1:22.347 3.323 44
10 J. Palmer Renault 1:22.418 3.394 53
11 M. Ericsson Sauber 1:23.330 4.306 88
12 F. Massa Williams 1:24.443 5.419 80
13 L. Stroll Williams 1:24.863 5.839 85

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of day two of the first F1 test of 2017, edging out Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by just two hundredths of a second at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Hamilton led the way until the lunch break, setting a morning best time of 1:29.983 on super soft tyres. The Briton then handed over driving duties of the Mercedes W08 to team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon. The Finn piled on the laps in the second part of the session, logging 102 tours of the circuit for a best time of 1:22.986 as he focused on race simulation.

Raikkonen’s timesheet topper of 1:20.960 came an hour into the afternoon spell and was set on soft tyres. The 2007 champion also got through 108 laps on a second trouble-free day for the Scuderia after Sebastian Vettel has posted 128 laps on day one.

Following a troubled opening day during which a sensor problem and a battery issue restricted Red Bull Racing to its garages for the bulk of the session, the second day in Barcelona was much more positive. Max Verstappen posted 89 laps on a issue-free day and pushed the RB13 to the day’s third best time, a 1m22.600s, set on soft tyres.

Fourth place went to Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, who ended the day just four thousandths of a second behind Verstappen, though the Dane used the super-soft Pirelli tyre compound to set the time. The new Haas also proved solidly reliable, with Magnussen completing 119 laps.

New Force India recruit Esteban Ocon was fifth on super-softs, ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, who set his best time on soft compound tyres. With Bottas seventh, Renault’ Jolyon Palmer took eighth place. The Anglo-French team managed just a single installation lap before the lunch break, but Palmer was able to join the action after lunch, completing 53 laps.

Sauber test driver Antonio Giovinazzi was ninth fastest and despite an engine in the morning the Italian was able to complete 67 laps.

Tenth place on the timesheet went to McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne. On day one McLaren were troubled by an oil leak that kept the car in the garage for much of the day and there were more problems today as the team was forced into a lengthy engine change that severely restricted Vandoorne’s track time.

After Felipe Massa racked up 103 laps in the Williams on day one, day two was a briefer affair for the Grove team as rookie Lance Stroll spun out in the morning. The Canadian damaged the car and with replacement parts not available the team was forced to call an early halt to running.

2017 Formula One Testing – Barcelona Test 1, Day 2

1  Kimi Raikkonen  Ferrari   1:20.960  108 
2  Lewis Hamilton  Mercedes   1:20.983  66 
3  Max Verstappen  Red Bull   1:22.200  89
4  Kevin Magnussen  Haas   1:22.204  119 
5  Estebaqn Ocon  Force India   1:22.509  86 
6  Daniil Kvyat  Toro Rosso   1:22.956  68 
7  Valtteri Bottas  Mercedes   1:22.986  102 
8  Jolyon Palmer  Renault   1:24.139  53 
9  Antonio Giovinazzi  Sauber   1:24.617  67 
10  Stoffel Vandoorne  McLaren   1:25.600  40 
11  Lance Stroll  Williams   1:26.040  12  

Mercedes Valtteri Bottas went quickest on the second day of the final pre-season F1 test in Barcelona as Ferrari’s running was ended early when Kim Räikkönen crashed out midway through the afternoon.

Bottas’ best lap of 1:19.310, the fastest of testing so far, came in the morning session and was set on supersoft tyres. The Finn went on to complete 68 laps in the opening period before handing over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon. The three-time champion added another 79 laps to Mercedes’ total for the day as he claimed sixth place on the timesheet with a best time of 1:20.782s set on soft tyres.

After claiming P1 yesterday and posting a huge total of 168 laps, Williams’ Felipe Massa was second quickest today. The Brazilian also set his best time in the morning and ended the day a tenth of a second behind Bottas, though Massa’s time was set on ultrasoft tyres. He later handed over driving duties to Lance Stroll. After a baptism of fire in the first test, during which he had several on-track incidents, the Canadian driver had a much smoother start to his second test, posting a total of 59 laps and setting the day’s fifth-fastest lap.

Another morning lap that held good until the end of the day was that of Kimi Räikkönen. The Ferrari driver set a soft-tyre best of 1:20.406 to hold third on the timesheet.

The Finn wasn’t afforded a late-afternoon chance to better that time, however, as midway through the afternoon he spun out and hit the barriers at Turn 3. The resulting damage to the front and left side of his car was enough to cause Ferrari to halt running for the day.

Fourth place on the timesheet went to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, though the Dutchman had something of start-stop day at the wheel of this RB13. After posting 34 laps in the morning the team called him back to the garage where he remained for almost three hours as an engine change was performed on his car.

When he did return to the fray Verstappen was able to add another 68 laps to his tally before another technical issues left him stranded at the exit of Turn 12 in the last 20 minutes of the session. Despite his issues Verstappen ended the day with the largest single lap total of any driver.

With Hamilton sixth, seventh place went to Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg. The German was then followed by Force India’s Sergio Perez and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. Haas’ Romain Grosjean completed the top 10 just over 2.5s adrift of Bottas.

Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein was 11^th today, with the German finishing four hundredths of a second ahead of McLaren’s Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard was followed by Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer.

2017 Formula One Testing – Barcelona Test 2, Day Two

1 V. Bottas Mercedes 1:19.310 70
2 F. Massa Williams 1:19.420 0.110 63
3 K. Räikkönen Ferrari 1:20.406 1.096 53
4 M. Verstappen Red Bull 1:20.432 1.122 102
5 L. Stroll Williams 1:20.579 1.269 59
6 L. Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.702 1.392 79
7 N. Hülkenberg Renault 1:21.213 1.903 61
8 S. Pérez Force India 1:21.297 1.987 100
9 C. Sainz Toro Rosso 1:21.872 2.562 92
10 R. Grosjean Haas 1:21.887 2.577 96
11 P. Wehrlein Sauber 1:23.000 3.690 59
12 F. Alonso McLaren 1:23.041 3.731 46
13 M. Ericsson Sauber 1:23.384 4.074 46
14 J. Palmer Renault 1:24.774 5.464 29

With day one of testing in the books, what happened and what can we learn?

With the first outing of the new F1 cars, the wait was finally over and the true potential of the cars and the rule changes started to show. Cars were clearly faster than previous years, 3.2 seconds from last year’s day 1 fastest time. But how did things go for the teams?

Mercedes (152 laps):

Mercedes recorded the most number of laps split between both drivers, with Bottas taking the first run before handing the car for his teammate for the day’s second session. Hamilton had 73 laps while Bottas recorded 79. Not only did they have the longest run but Hamilton was able to score the fastest lap time of the day with 1:21:765. A solid, untroubled day 1 for the reigning champions with a reliable car on the first day.

Ferrari (128 laps):

Vettel took over for the first day and was able to record 128 laps, most driven by one driver and second for teams overall. Vettel finished the day second on the timesheets after leading the morning session. Vettel was 0.113 second away of Hamilton, knowing that Vettel scored his fastest lap time on the medium tyres unlike Hamilton whose time was recorded on the soft compound. A great run for Ferrari who looks to be back in the competition after a disappointing 2016 season.

Williams (103 laps):

Massa who decided to come out of retirement for one more season with Williams was in charge during day 1. He was able to record 103 laps, second most driver and third most between the teams. Massa was able to score the third fastest time as well almost 2 tenths of a second behind the Ferrari. Williams should be satisfied with their results for the first day.

Sauber (72 laps):

Marcus Ericsson had a smooth day and was able to have the fifth most number of laps between the drivers fourth between teams. Yet with the reliable run the Sauber failed to set a competitive time finishing last on the timesheet around 5 seconds from Hamilton. Can the team find the solution and get extra seconds out of the car?

Renault (57 laps):

Almost a full race distance covered by Renault’s newcomer Hulkenberg on his first day behind the wheel for the French team.  The German had a consistent day but his best time was around 3 seconds of the top putting him only ninth overall.

Haas (51 laps):

On his first day with the team, Magnussen drove his Haas for fourth fastest time of the first day performing 51 laps. The Danish was almost is second adrift of the top. The US based team had a good first day overall with good timing and an average amount of laps performed.

Toro Rosso (51 laps):

Sainz took out the Toro Rosso for the first day of testing running for 51 laps. The Spaniard’s fastest time put him around 2.8 seconds away from top spot and ranking it eighth overall. Not the best day for Toro Rosso.

Red Bull (50 laps):

Daniel Ricciardo caused the first red flag of the season after stopping his car at turn 4, with what was later announced by the team a sensor issue. The car was back in the garage and later a battery issue surfaced. It was a while before the Australian was back on track but he was able to recover and score 50 laps after all. His best time was 1:22:926 placing him fifth overall. Not the best start for Red Bull but they were able to bounce back and make the best of the time they were left with.

Force India (39 laps):

Sergio Perez had a good morning run in the new Force India but was later forced to stop for the afternoon. The team described the problem as a technical issue and had to stop their program for day 1. The team were ninth for the amount of laps performed while they were able to score seventh fastest time overall.

McLaren (29 laps):

Another frustrating first day of testing for McLaren with Alonso only able to record one lap in the morning before an oil system issue brought him into the pits. Alonso’s day then restarted late and was only able to perform 29 laps, fewest among all, scoring the tenth fastest time. McLaren and Honda announced that the problem was not fully solved and would have to wait for tomorrow for a full solution.

Williams’ Felipe Massa topped the Barcelona timesheets, egding out Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo by 0.174 as the second and final Formula One test of pre-season got underway in Barcelona.

The Brazilian driver, who recently came back from a brief retirement to contest another season for Williams, set his best time of the day just over half an hour before the end of the morning session. The Brazilian’s time of 1:19.726, set on supersoft tyres, came under threat shortly afterwards when Ricciardo bolted on a set of ultrasofts but the lap wasn’t perfect and the Australian ended the morning in P2 with a time of 1:19.900. Those times held through the afternoon as the bulk of teams switched focus in the afternoon, with the short runs of the first hours giving way to longer runs in the second part of the day.

Williams were one of those teams working through long runs and after his supersoft-shod heroics of the morning Massa  put in some marathon stints in the afternoon to end the day with a whopping total of 168 laps.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was similarly industrious and the German ended the day by not only matching Massa’s total but also by setting the fastest time of the afternoon, a lap of 1:19.906 set on soft tyres that was good enough for P3 on the timesheet.

While Vettel’s time, two steps up the Pirelli range from Ricciardo, looked ominously quick, the Australian felt that his time on ultrasofts had not been entirely satisfactory.

“We were also able to start doing some performance runs today. We tried the softer compounds and while my best time was on the ultrasoft it was actually not much quicker than the soft,” he said. “I think we learned something from that. We definitely feel we can still get more out of the car – I think everyone can – but it’s looking alright. It’s now my third day in the car and from day one to day two and now day three I’m more and more happy with it.”

Fourth place on the timesheet went to Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver was only able to complete 49 laps in the morning session due to a damaged floor. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas took over for the afternoon work and the Finn added a further 86 laps to bring the team’s tally to 135. Bottas ended the day in fifth place, 1.2s down on Massa’s pace.

Esteban Ocon gave Force India sixth place, just over four tenths off Bottas. The Frenchman’s time came on the supersoft Pirelli compound, however, while Bottas’s best was registered using the soft tyre.

Mercedes weren’t the only team to revolve drivers and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg set the day’s seventh fastest time in the afternoon after the team was forced into an engine change in the morning. Jolyon Palmer completed just 15 laps at the wheel of the Renault. Hulkenberg also brought out the day;s only red flag when his car ground to a halt in the dying moments of the session.

Daniil Kvyat was eighth fastest for Toro Rosso and the Russian ended the day seven tenths of a second head of McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.

The Honda-powered team had another troubled start as another engine change was required in the morning but thereafter Vandoorne ran reliably, posting a total of 80 laps by the end of running.

Sauber's Pascal Wehrlein, returning from an off-season neck injury, was 11^th quickest ahead of team-mate Marcus Ericsson, while Palmer was 13^th.

2017 Formula One Testing, Barcelona Test 2, Day One
1 Felipe Massa Williams 1:19.726s - 168
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:19.900s 0.174s 89
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:19.906s 0.180s 168
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:20.456s 0.730s 49
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.924s 1.198s 86
6 Esteban Ocon Force India 1:21.347s 1.621s 142
7 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:21.589s 1.863s 58
8 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:21.676s 1.950s 81
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:21.743s 2.017s 8
10 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1:22.537s 2.811s 80
11 Pascal Wehrlein Sauber 1:23.336s 3.610s 47
12 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:23.630s 3.904s 53
13 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1:24.790s 5.064s 15

Lewis Hamilton went quickest on the opening day of testing for the 2017 FIA Formula One World Championship season, with the Mercedes driver edging out Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by just over a tenth of a second.

This season sees the introduction of new rules aimed at making F1’s cars much quicker than previous generations and that promise was delivered upon by Hamilton, with the three-time champion posting a opening day best time of 1:21.765 – a full second quicker than the fastest time of 2016 pre-season testing, set by Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton’s timesheet topper came two hours from the end of running and was set on soft tyres. The Briton also posted a total of 73 laps in the afternoon after taking over from new team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who logged 79 laps in the morning for an impressive Mercedes total of 152 laps. Bottas ended the day in sixth place with a best lap of 1:23.619.

In the morning session Bottas ran the new Mercedes W08 largely as seen at the car’s launch, without the ‘shark-fin’ engine cover present on the bulk of its rivals. However, when Hamilton took over in the afternoon, the defending Constructors’ champions introduced their own version of aerodynamic solution.

While Hamilton’s best time came on the soft compound wider Pirellis, Vettel managed to get to just over a tenth behind the Briton using the medium tyres. Indeed, Ferrari avoided using either the softer end of Pirelli’s range all day with the four-time champion moving to the hard compound at the end of the day. The German also recorded an impressive lap count, circling the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya 128 times.

It was a similar story at Williams, where Felipe Massa, returning to Formula One after a brief period of retirement, posted a total of 103 laps. The Brazilian’s best time, a lap of 1:22.076 set on soft tyres, put him third at the end of the day.

US team Haas had a positive first outing. New recruit Kevin Magnussen jumped to fourth late in the session with a soft tyre time of 1:22.894.

While the top three teams on the timesheet enjoyed enviable reliability, Red Bull Racing had a troubled first day. An engine sensor problem in the morning restricted Daniel Ricciardo to just four laps and then in the early afternoon a battery issue led to more garage time.

Ricciardo was able to rejoin the action in the last two hours of the session, however, and ran faultlessly to the end to post 50 laps and record the day’s fifth fastest lap. Behind him were Force India’s Sergio Perez, Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz and Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg.

There were problems too for McLaren. The team suffered an oil leak in the morning and though Fernando Alonso was able to run late in the afternoon he could only manage the day’s 10^th best time, three seconds adrift of Hamilton. Sauber's Marcus Ericsson was 11^th on the day, just over five seconds off the pace.

2017 Formula One Testing – Barcelona Test 1, Day 1

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:21.765s – 73
2 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:21.878s 0.113s 128
3 Felipe Massa Williams 1:22.076s 0.311s 103
4 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:22.894s 1.129s 51
5 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull 1:22.926s 1.161s 50
6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:23.169s 1.404s 79
7 Sergio Perez Force India 1:23.709s 1.944s 39
8 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso 1:24.494s 2.729s 51
9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:24.784s 3.019s 57
10 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1:24.852s 3.087s 29
11 Marcus Ericsson Sauber 1:26.841s 5.076s 72

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest lap of a somewhat disjointed final day of the first 2017 F1 test in Barcelona.

With the day set for testing of Pirelli’s new wet weather tyres compounds, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was wetted overnight and at lunchtime using water tanker trucks. However, with track temperatures reaching more than 30˚C the surface dried quickly and useful running on wet or dry tyres was thus hard to come by.

In the morning session the track only remained wet enough to use the full wet blue Pirelli tyres for around an hour before the switch to intermediates was made. Late in the session Räikkönen bolted on slick tyres and claimed lunchtime P1 with a lap of 1:22.305.

The Ferrari driver got through 45 laps in the morning, which was 36 more than Mercedes. The champions spent most of the opening session in its garage with the team saying it was working to fix and electrical fault on its car. As such Lewis Hamilton failed to turn any laps on the final day. Just before lunch as the wet running gave way to the use of slicks, Mercedes sent Valtteri Bottas out on track.

The track was watered again during the lunch break and afterwards few teams ventured out to test the conditions, though Bottas did give Mercedes some wet weather running early in the session.

The Finn eventually put 68 laps on the board before Mercedes called time on its day’s work in the final hour of running having seen a cause for concern in data from its car. Bottas ended the day in P8.

When the crossover point eventually arrived Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen briefly took over from Räikkönen at the top of the timesheet but the Finn was soon in command again, pushing the Dutchman to second by a margin of 0.897s. Both the Ferrari and Red Bull driver set their best time on the soft compound tyres.

With Verstappen second, third place on the timesheet went to Renault’s Jolyon Palmer who took over from Nico Hulkenberg for the afternoon session. The Briton’s best time, just nine thousandths of a second behind Verstappen, was also set on the soft compound Pirelli.

Haas’ Romain Grosjean made a step towards the softer end of the range to claim fourth place, however, with the Frenchman using the red-banded supersoft to set a time of 1:22.309. Grosjean was also the day’s busiest driver, getting through 118 laps of the Catalonian track.

Antonio Giovinazzi was fifth for Sauber, just over 1.5s off Räikkönen’s pace on ultrasofts, while sixth place went to Force India’s Sergio Perez who set his best time using the supersofts.

McLaren enjoyed another day of useful running with Stoffel Vandoorne getting through 66 laps to put a good gloss on what started out as a troubled week for the Honda-powered team. The Belgian finished the day ahead of Bottas and Hulkenberg. It was left to Toro Rosso to prop up the timesheet. The Italian outfit completed just one lap in the morning, with Daniil Kvyat at the wheel.

The car was then brought back to the garage for an engine change and then failed to emerge for the rest of the day. Williams, meanwhile, were not able to run owing to damage sustained yesterday when Lance Stroll crashed the team’s car.

2017 Formula One testing – Barcelona Test 1, Day 4

1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m20.872s – 93
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1m21.769s 0.897s 85
3 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m21.778s 0.906s 39
4 Romain Grosjean Haas 1m22.309s 1.437s 118
5 Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber 1m22.401s 1.529s 84
6 Sergio Perez Force India 1m22.534s 1.662s 82
7 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1m22.576s 1.704s 67
8 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m23.443s 2.571s 68
9 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1m24.974s 4.102s 51
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso - - 1

For the first time since their return to the Formula 1 championship as an independent team, Mercedes AMG launched their car on Thursday without the current drivers’ champion Nico Rosberg who decided to retire five days after being crowned world champion. Although, losing a world champion from the grid is something no fan would wish for, the retirement of Rosberg nevertheless set off a chain of interesting events that won’t just affect the 2017 grid only but also might have a huge effect on the 2018 season, yet it would hugely affect the Mercedes team also.

Everyone was excited to see the new Mercedes W08, which impressed most if not all Formula 1 fans with the new look following the new rule changes and impressive body and paint work details the team put together. However the car was not just what everyone was waiting for. The car release was the first time the new driving partners, Hamilton and Bottas, were together in front of the media. Such incident will not have such interest if it weren’t for the history this team had between Rosberg and Hamilton and the rivalry that spiced things up on several occasions. Mercedes had Q&A’s set up following the car launch, and the hype lived up to the expectations.

Lewis Hamilton was up first and as usual the Englishman turned the competition up. The Brit, who lost his title last year following two dominating seasons, was clear admitting he is working hard to recover his title. He added that he was working hard on his mistakes and weaknesses and went further revealing he’s also keeping an eye on his rivals’ strengths and weaknesses especially his teammate. Hamilton is clearly not giving up on winning his fourth title or reducing his competitiveness but will he have an intense rivalry with his new teammate or things will be less tense in the new era?

Valtteri Bottas ended the rounds of interviews and launch day at Silverstone and the new comer is clearly setting his sights up high. From the start of the interview he made it clear he wanted to win races and having the eyes on the prize. When asked if he will bring the fight to his new teammate, he confidently answered he is going to else he would be at home. The Fin was clear he was ready to fight for wins and to fill the shoes of a champion he is replacing.

With the new duo going into the new season they surely will have part of the spotlight on them whether the rivalry will be tense or not. Both drivers made sure to deliver a message that none of them was backing down and that they are both prepared for the challenges next season. Who will have the upper hand at the end is a question everyone is waiting for its answer.