The second week of testing resumed today in Barcelona with Felipe Massa setting the best time of the day ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.
After one week without driving, Felipe Massa did the job today by setting the best time of the day in the morning with a 1:19.726 and dedicating the afternoon to race simulations. The Brazilian brought good feedback to the team which had to abort their programme in the first week following Lance Stroll’s accidents on last Wednesday.
In second place stood Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull less than two tenths a drift from Massa but with half less laps completed. The Red Bull is still questioning itself aerodynamically which is not the case for Vettel’s Ferrari which covered 168 laps today, the same amount than Massa.
Lewis Hamilton landed P3 with his time in the morning just ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon. Esteban Ocon was sixth but was the third most productive driver of the day with 142 laps completed, confirming Force India’s reliability.
Nico Hülkenberg was more lucky than his teammate as he did not suffer from electronical problems in the afternoon and was seventh overall with his Renault ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Daniil Kvyat managed to be ninth with the Toro Rosso. McLaren was betrayed, once again by its Honda engine and Stoffel Vandoorne, despite covering 80 laps, had to change of power-unit.
Pascal Wehrlein discovered his car after his forfeit last week and managed to be faster than Ericsson on the same day. With only 15 laps completed, Palmer was at the bottom of the timesheets after an electronical problem on the Renault.
