Sebastian Vettel maintains Barcelona benchmark

After the afternoon session in Barcelona, ​​improvements should not be sought from the lap times side at the top of the hierarchy. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) has in fact retained the reference of the day in Catalonia, with a better time achieved this morning in 1'20 "396 on medium tires.

The German, on the other hand, took advantage of the second session of the day to accumulate 171 laps in total (counting the last loops for starting tests).

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes), replaced by Lewis Hamilton in the afternoon, remains second in the day's standings by two tenths (soft tires) and still ahead Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who did not improve his time but was able to complete 130 laps in total, despite stopping on track during the session after the break following a battery problem.

Only lined up from 14 p.m., Lewis Hamilton completed 88 laps with his No. 09 W44 for the fourth final time in 1’20”808. A personal reference sufficient to dislodge Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) from fourth place.

The Frenchman, however, only completed a short lap in the afternoon, with brake problems on the STR13 – Honda, confirmed by Toro Rosso after the checkered flag.

McLaren still slowed down

Kevin Magnussen (Haas), despite a problem with an element linked to the ERS which stopped the VF-18 for a while this Tuesday afternoon, finished with the sixth time in 1’21”298 and 92 cumulative laps. The two follow Renault RS 18 Nico Hulkenberg et Carlos Sainz, the latter having completed 91 laps in the afternoon alone.

Followed by Sergey Sirotkin (Williams), lined up this morning by the Grove team, Sergio Pérez (Force India), Marcus Ericsson (Sauber), author of 120 laps.

Immobilized this morning following a power cut on its McLaren MCL33, Stoffel vandoorne seemed to have regained possession of a car in full possession of his means at the start of the session after the break, before a hydraulic leak ends his day.

The Belgian finished with only 38 laps on the clock, and McLaren with precious kilometers of running time to continue the development of its single-seater powered by the Renault V6 turbo/hybrid Power Unit.

Lance stroll (Williams) completes the ranking without having tried to set a fast lap, and ends his afternoon with 86 laps completed.

Ranking day 1 Barcelona 2:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari): 1’20″396 – 171 laps – Mediums
2. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes): 1’20″596 (+0″200) – 86 laps – Soft
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull): 1’20″649 (+0″253) – 130 laps – Mediums
4. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes): 1’20″808 (+0″412) – 91 laps – Mediums
5. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso): 1’20″973 (+0″577) – 54 laps – Soft
6. Kevin Magnussen (Haas): 1’21″298 (+0″902) – 96 laps – Soft
7. Nico Hülkenberg (Renault): 1’21″432 (+1″036) – 48 laps – Mediums
8. Carlos Sainz (Renault): 1’21″455 (+1″059) – 91 laps – Soft
9. Sergey Sirotkin (Williams): 1’21″588 (+1″192) – 42 laps – Soft
10. Sergio Pérez (Force India): 1’21″643 (+1″247) – 93 laps – Soft
11. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber): 1’21″706 (+1″310) – 120 laps – Super-soft
12. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren): 1’21″946 (+1″550) – 38 laps – Super-soft
13. Lance Stroll (Williams): 1’22″937 (+2″541) – 86 laps – Hyper-soft