Bottas lowers the time benchmark for testing

The morning of the last day of the first week of 2020 winter testing in Barcelona saw Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) clearly increase the tempo behind the wheel of the W11.

The Finn, author of pole position in Catalonia in 2019 in 1’15”406, came within three tenths of this mark in 1’15”732, in the last hour of driving. A lap carried out on C5 tires, the softest compound made available to drivers by Pirelli.

You have to go find Esteban Ocon (Renault) at 1″3 to see the closest pursuer of Bottas, the Frenchman having also been one of the most productive this morning, with 76 laps covered.

Lance stroll (RacingPoint F1) places the RP20 in third position ahead of the clan Red Bull, led by theAlpha Tauri AT01 of Daniil Kvyat and the Red Bull RB16 of Max Verstappen, still the most diligent with 86 laps accumulated.

Followed by Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), Carlos Sainz (McLaren), Romain Grosjean (Haas) and Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari). The German driver was at the origin of the only red flag of the Catalan morning, after an engine problem detected on his SF1000. The first major track problem for these Spanish runs since Wednesday's kick-off.

We had to stop due to an engine problem, whose exact cause we will investigate back in Maranello – we are now fitting a new engine so will be back on track in the afternoon. #esseFerrari#F1Testing pic.twitter.com/Bnw10PgK9B

- Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) February 21, 2020

The Scuderia installed a new Power Unit so that the four-time world champion could perform normally for the rest of the day.

The ranking is completed by Nicholas latifi, the Canadian Williams having also caused a neutralization of the session by stopping on the track, after losing the transmission on his FW43.

The afternoon session will begin at 14 p.m. and will be followed live and in full via our live-text.