Barcelona test 2, day 1 - Vettel ahead in busy day

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

The second 4-day test at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya has got underway, with the weather looking much more test-friendly than the conditions of last week.

Teams didn't wander about, with Bottas especially very active in the morning. After a single hour, the Finnish Mercedes driver had already recorded 24 laps. By contract, Haas and McLaren had only completed a single installation lap.

When Vandoorne eventually came out for a few more laps, he ended up stopping just ahead of the pitlane entry. He had set best S1 and S2 sector times before coming to a halt, and stepping out of the Renault-powered McLaren. As the session was red flagged, a recovery vehicle came to the scene, only to find out it wasn't necessary, as McLaren staff pushed the car through the pitlane and into the pitbox.

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At 10:08, the session was green flagged again. Besides Bottas, Verstappen had also been active with 15 laps so far. Perez totalled 8 and Sirotkin 9.

15 minutes later, both Vettel and Bottas were out on track on the soft tyres, with the two being split by only 0.022s on their second flying laps (with Bottas having the advantage).

What followed was a very busy morning session, with only Vandoorne having to sit out the entire morning as the team were trying to fix an issue with the batteries. The Belgian only just managed to sneak out for another few laps just before the lunch break. On this run, the McLaren 's right hand side was covered with flowviz paint.

Times at noon were as follows:

In the afternoon session we started to see the first race simulations, with Sainz completing one for Renault late in the afternoon while Vettel and Hamilton did longer stints a bit earlier on.

Meanwhile, more Renault runners hit trouble, with Stoffel Vandoorne once again coming to a halt. At 16:00, he ended up stopped at Turn 3, and half an hour later, it was Verstappen's car that had to be recovered on the flatbed truck after coming to a halt in Turn 1.

At the end of the day, Vettel continued to top the timesheet with his best effort completed just before noon.