F1 Test 2, Day 3 Roundup: Bottas ends final day on top for Mercedes.

As the sunset on another pre-season test at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain, it was Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes leaving satisfied, as they finished quickest on the time-sheets, by just 0.073 to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen who took second.

Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+, F1 2020 Pre-Season Testing, Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona, Montmelo, Catalonia, Spain. Image credit to Mercedes.

Bottas’ best effort of a 1:16.196 was set on the C5 softest compound, which was almost a second off his benchmark of a 1:15.732 from last Friday’s running, and stands as the quickest time of the two weeks of pre-season testing – as the Finn can walk away with a great feeling having set both the fastest and second best of all the six days.

Bottas in the afternoon and final session of testing ran, car setup, aerodynamic data collection and correlation work as the Finn completed 77 laps in total.

It was an encouraging day for Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen, who ended in P2 with his time of a 1:16.269 set on the C4 tyre, meaning there is pace on hand in the Honda-powered RB16 as the Dutchman went on to reach 44 laps.

Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo was third quickest on the day, posting a 1:16.276 on the C5 softer tyre, as the Australian completed 65 laps of the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya, while working through setup changes, and assessing the main characteristics of the R.S.20.

Charles Leclerc piloted the SF1000 for Ferrari on the final day with the Monegasque youngster setting the fourth quickest time of a 1:16.360 and was 0.164 off of Bottas’ benchmark time.

Leclerc completed the most laps of everyone with 177 in total, completing a full race weekend programme on the C3, C4 and C5 tyres in the morning after the usual system checks and installation lap on the C2’s while in the afternoon, he continued his race simulation reaching a Barcelona Grand Prix distance and after the car was checked – more runs were completed to collect data to analyse certain components of the SF1000.

Reigning Champion Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top five for Mercedes, completing 90 laps in the morning session with the Briton working on car setup for longer runs, gathering aerodynamic data and testing new aerodynamic components. Hamilton wound up 0.214 seconds off of team-mate Bottas.

Esteban Ocon was sixth on the time-sheets for Renault, clocking up 71 laps and posted a 1:16.433, which was 0.157 adrift of team-mate Ricciardo.

BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s Sergio Perez ended his day seventh fastest as the Mexican clocked up 153 laps. The team suffered a minor electrical fault in the morning run, which costed Perez some running on the softer compound – while in the afternoon, he focused on long run performance with the Mercedes-powered RP20.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz followed in eighth place with the Spaniard achieving 159 laps and his programme consisted of completing some testing checks and in the final afternoon session, long runs and race simulations, putting the MCL35 through it’s paces before the season opener in Melbourne in a fortnight.

ROKiT Williams Racing’s George Russell completed his final day of testing in ninth with 143 laps ran in the F43 racer, as the Briton undertook performance runs on the softer compounds as they finalised the car’s setup. Russell ran qualifying simulations in the morning followed by a full race distance in the afternoon, completing a longer higher fuel run using the harder tyres.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat completed the top ten, gathering a lot of data, both in the morning and afternoon session, as the Russian learned more on how the Honda-powered AT01 and tyres behave during longer stints, testing the various available compounds along with outstanding test items, which were still to be completed. Kvyat wound up 0.718 off of Bottas’ time and ran 157 laps in total.

Haas F1 Team pairing Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were 11th and 13th respectively in the final test outing for the Kannapolis/Banbury-based outfit. Grosjean’s final morning run, saw him sample the C3 and C4 on a series of stints before completing 86 laps on a longer pace run before the lunch-break, meanwhile team-mate Magnussen piloted the VF-20 in the afternoon, and trouble struck for the Dane suffering a clutch issue, 16 laps in, sidelining him for most of the afternoon. The team however, managed to get Magnussen back on track with 25 minutes remaining, put on the C4 soft compound and hit a best effort of a 1:17.495.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was sandwiched in-between the Haas duo in 12th on the time-sheets. The Finn completed a total of 115 laps, running both qualifying and race simulations, which saw him end 1.219 seconds adrift of Bottas’ benchmark after setting a 1:17.415.

Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon brought up the rear in 14th as the Thai-Briton took a trip into the turn 12 gravel trap and spent a bit of the morning in the garage. He managed to complete some setup work alongside short and longer performance-based runs. Albon completed 59 laps and finished 1.607 off of Bottas’ quickest effort.