#F1 2020 Test Day 3 Roundup – @ValtteriBottas sets blistering lap to top time-sheets.

Valtteri Bottas put in an ultra-fast lap that sent his Silver Arrows to the top of the time-sheets on the final day of pre-season testing for the week as Mercedes took a one-two with team-mate Lewis Hamilton moving to second in the afternoon.

Whilst Mercedes new Dual Axis Steering (DAS) was still the hot topic of the paddock, the Brackley-based outfit continued to show it’s impressive speed with Bottas setting his best effort of a 1:15.732 on the C5 softest compound with team-mate Hamilton’s quick time of a 1:16.642 also coming on the same tyre.

Both Mercedes drivers covered a full three Spanish Grand Prix distances on their final day as they prepare to battle for their seventh consecutive World Constructors Championship.

Mercedes testing program for day three focused on aero data runs, shorter runs and setup work with practice start procedures also done by Hamilton in the afternoon.

Former Mercedes reserve, now Renault driver Esteban Ocon was third fastest on the day and set a 1:17.102, which was some 1.370 seconds off of Bottas’ blistering time as the Frenchman completed 76 laps in total.

BWT Racing Point’s Lance Stroll ended the final day fourth quickest, managing 116 laps with his RP20 racer and over two tenths behind Ocon.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat completed the top five, posting a 1:17.427 on the C4 during his performance runs and reached 62 laps as the Russian continued to work on the aero rake and further mapping work.

Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN’s Antonio Giovinazzi was sixth on the time-sheets on the final day of pre-season testing with the Italian achieving the most laps a driver completed on day three with 152.

Giovinazzi best time was a 1:17.469 and was 1.737 seconds off of Bottas’ test day 3 benchmark.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo followed in seventh place, as the Australian ran 93 laps despite coming to a halt at turn nine, which caused the fourth and final red flag of the day before suffering a spin at turn 13 later in the afternoon session.

Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon shared their driving duties on the final day as both Red Bull Racing drivers took eighth and tenth respectively on the timing sheets.

Verstappen completed a solid 86 laps in the morning, while team-mate Albon managed 84 in the afternoon as both driver’s worked on race simulation.

The second AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly was sandwiched in-between the two Red Bull drivers in ninth on the classifications as the Frenchman took over from team-mate Kvyat in the afternoon session.

Gasly’s programme consisted of mechanical and aerodynamic tests over short and long distance runs. He lost some time in the afternoon due to a floor issue and wound up completing 59 laps and posting a 1:17.783 (2.051 off of Bottas’ test day 3 time).

The McLaren duo Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris shared driving duties on the final day of running with the former taking eleventh and the latter 14th on the time-sheets respectively.

The Woking-based outfit were satisfied with one of their best first winter tests they’ve had in years with promising signs of great reliability and rapidly getting through their testing program as they continue to extract the potential of their Renault-powered MCL35.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were 12th and at the rear on the final day of testing as the former completed 48 laps in the morning working on base-line setups while the latter caused one of the two red flags in the afternoon after a right-rear puncture brought the Dane’s day to a close due to whacking the wall on the exit of turn seven in only his fourth lap.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was 13th and completed 100 laps on day three of pre-season testing, but the German’s morning was hampered by a power-unit failure, which saw the first mechanical red flag for the session.

The Maranello marque took on a radically different approach of testing than the year’s beforehand, concentrating on evaluating every aspect of the SF1000’s potential, running different configurations both aerodynamically and mechanical to gather as much data as possible to analyse.

In the final week of testing coming up, the team sets their sights on performance runs in qualifying and race trim to better prepare for the season-opening Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020 from March 13-15.

ROKiT Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi was fourteenth on the timing sheets after the Canadian, like Vettel, also suffered a power-unit issue, which also triggered a red flag.

The Grove-based outfit ran a lot of aerodynamic runs in the morning and completed some useful tyre evaluations in the late afternoon after replacing the Mercedes power-train.

The aforementioned Magnussen, after spinning out, brought up the rear.

F1 2020 Test – Week 1, Day 3 Results Classification

You can watch the highlights of the final day of pre-season testing at the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aam8A5HMp_8

You can catch up on the first two days of pre-season testing at the following links:

Day One:

#F1 2020 Test 1, Day 2 Roundup: #Raikkonen quickest before bringing out red flag.

Day Two:

#F1 2020 Test 1, Day 2 Roundup: #Raikkonen quickest before bringing out red flag.