Barcelona 2 assessment: At Ferrari the stopwatch, at Mercedes the kilometers

Ferrari ends this second week of Catalan driving with the two honorary best times, established in 1’17″182 for Sebastian Vettel and in 1’17”221 for Kimi Räikkönen. Two references made with hyper-soft tires, rubbers that the Mercedes W09, considered favorites before this 2018 season, did not use during the week.

Let us also note the turn of Fernando Alonso this Friday evening in 1’17”784 on hyper-soft tires. Once again, all these times must be taken with caution, the quantities of gasoline on board being able to serve in particular as an adjustment variable.

In terms of kilometers covered, Mercedes is the only team to have exceeded the 700 lap mark this week (734). The significantly improved weather conditions logically allowed the teams to increase their total mileage compared to last week.

Note, however, that McLaren lost a lot of running time due to various problems (battery, oil leak, turbo), including two engine changes for Fernando Alonso, who logically found himself with one of the lowest lap totals.

Conversely, Toro Rosso, with the Honda block, once again demonstrated good general reliability. Vettel (Ferrari), Verstappen (Red Bull) and Grosjean (Haas) also completed 188, 187 and 181 loops in a single day.

Here is the summary in figures for the week. You can find more analysis in issue 2156 of AUTOhebdo, available from next Monday in digital version and from next Wednesday on newsstands.

Best cumulative times per driver

Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1m17.182s – Hyper-soft

Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari) 1m17.221s – Hyper-soft

Fernando Alonso (McLaren) 1m17.784s – Hyper-soft

Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) 1m18.047s – Hyper-soft

Carlos Sainz (Renault) 1m18.092s – Hyper-soft

Kevin Magnussen (Haas) 1m18.360s – Super-soft

Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) 1m18.363s – Hyper-soft

Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m18.400s – Ultra-soft

Romain Grosjean (Haas) 1m18.412s – Ultra-soft

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) 1m18.560s – Ultra-soft

Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) 1m18.675s – Hyper-soft

Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) 1m18.855s – Hyper-soft

Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) 1m18.949s – Hyper-soft

Esteban Ocon (Force India) 1m18.967s – Hyper-soft

Charles Leclerc (Sauber) 1m19.118s – Hyper-soft

Sergey Sirotkin (Williams) 1m19.189s – Soft

Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) 1m19.244s – Hyper-soft

Robert Kubica (Williams) 1m19.629s – Super-soft

Sergio Pérez (Force India) 1m19.634s – Hyper-soft

Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m19.842s – Soft

Lance stroll (Williams) 1m19.954s – Soft
 

Kilometers traveled:

PILES

Vettel (Ferrari): 425 laps / 1978 km

Bottas (Mercedes): 372 laps / 1731 km

Hamilton (Mercedes): 362 laps / 1685 km

Verstappen (Red Bull): 317 laps / 1475 km

Sainz (Renault): 293 laps / 1363 km

Ocon (Force India): 293 laps / 1363 km

Hartley (Toro Rosso): 275 laps / 1280 km

Ericsson (Sauber): 268 laps / 1247 km

Grosjean (Haas): 259 laps / 1205 km

Ricciardo (Red Bull): 257 laps / 1196 km

Pérez (Force India): 252 laps / 1173 km

Magnussen (Haas): 249 laps / 1159 km

Stroll (Williams): 243 laps / 1131 km

Leclerc (Sauber): 235 laps / 1093 km

Hülkenberg (Renault): 229 laps / 1065 km

Sirotkin (Williams): 227 laps / 1056 km

Gasly (Toro Rosso): 223 laps / 1038 km

Räikkönen (Ferrari): 206 laps / 958 km

Vandoorne (McLaren): 189 laps / 879 km

Alonso (McLaren): 150 laps / 698 km

Kubica (Williams): 73 laps / 339 km

TEAMS

Mercedes: 734 laps / 3416 km

Ferrari: 631 laps / 2937 km

Red Bull: 574 laps / 2671 km

Force India: 545 laps / 2536 km

Williams: 543 laps / 2527 km

Renault: 522 laps / 2429 km

Haas: 508 laps / 2364 km

Sauber: 503 laps / 2341 km

Toro Rosso: 498 laps / 2318 km

McLaren: 339 laps / 1578 km

ENGINE ENGINEERS

Mercedes: 1822 laps / 8481 km

Ferrari: 1642 laps / 7643 km

Renault: 861 laps / 4007 km

TAG Heuer (Renault engine rebadged at Red Bull): 574 laps / 2671 km

Honda: 498 laps / 2138 km