Valtteri Bottas blasted his way to the top of the Formula 1 pre-season testing timesheets on a day when Sebastian Vettel was hit by engine trouble. Although using the softest of the five compounds made available by Pirelli for testing with the C5, Bottas offered a hint of the speed potential of his Mercedes W11 with a lap of one minute 15.732secs at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya. Article continues under video In context, the lap was half-a-second quicker than in testing at the track a year ago, and only three-tenths of a second behind the lap record he set with his pole position time of 1:15.406s in qualifying for last season's Spanish Grand Prix. Bottas' nearest challenger was former...
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