Valtteri Bottas with Mercedes was fastest during the second day of the second pre-season Formula 1 Catalunya test. His time of 1:19.310min was 0.11sec better than the one of Felipe Massa (Williams).
Kimi Raikkonen was third in the standings but session ended prematurely. The Finn from Ferrari spun and went off the circuit at turn 3 two hours before the end of the test day. He hit the barriers and the front wing. There was also slight damage to the front suspension and to the left rear of the SF70H. The first look showed no indication of some failure on the car. Ferrari continued their investigation.
Red Bull changed the engine in Max Verstappen’s car. The Dutch driver appeared at the circuit after a four-hour delay in the afternoon part of the test. He caused an interruption only about 10 minutes before the chequered flag after pulling off.
At the very end of the session there was another red flag after Marcus Ericson’s Sauber stopped at turn 8.
#F1 @ValtteriBottas finishes day 2 of the 2nd week of #F1Testing on top with the best time of the pre-season tests so far at @Circuitcat_eng pic.twitter.com/Ub7XWY3f1H
— FIA (@fia) 8 March 2017
Meanwhile McLaren’s Eric Boullier said the new chassis’ results are exactly according to expectations and again blamed the team’s problems on Honda
“Strangely, the car reacts well to any changes that we have asked. The drivers on that point are quite happy. I read some comments and they are a bit like [Donald] Trump ‘fake news’ – because it is not only chassis”, Boullier explained, quoted by motorsport.com.
“We had some driveability issues. That means when you are back on the power you lose the back of the car so the car looks nervous. But there is nothing wrong. Driveability issues, old tyres, let’s say, warming up the tyres is not good enough. But still the car spec here is launch spec. We do try little bits, but we will not run the full spec. The full spec will be run in Australia.”
