Sebastian Vettel was fastest again at the Formula 1 pre-season test but this time his time was a lap record at the Catalunya circuit. The Ferrari driver’s best achievement was 1:17.182min. Max Verstappen was second at more than a second – +1.178sec. Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso was third in the standings.
??? Another day for timebreakers!! Plenty of 1:18 laps… although some have hidden their secrets… ? pic.twitter.com/SpJKXDiosW
— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) March 8, 2018
Vettel & Verstappen beat Mercedes duo if we take a look at most completed laps. 7 drivers has exceeded the 100 laps mark today (even McLaren) #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/M0wR7vY3cZ
— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) March 8, 2018
Sebastian Vettel was fastest again at the Formula 1 pre-season test but this time his time was a lap record at the Catalunya circuit
“Today was about doing a lot of laps… a lot of laps!” said Max Verstappen. “The focus for us was on long runs and the feeling with the car was good. No problems with the car and I was happy with the pace. We can definitely work from here. If it’s going to be good enough, we’ll have to wait and see. We’ll find out when we get into the races, but I think we can be happy with what we have. I’m ready for it.”
Pierre Gasly pointed out that it was a productive day for him after 169 laps.
“We set a target of 155 laps and in the end, we managed to do 169, so I was happy to finish off testing with a busy day. Today I used the ultrasoft and the hypersoft for the first time – and the car always feels good when you have more grip – so we covered more or less all of the tyre compounds and I think we will have plenty of data to analyse now”, he added.
“These 169 laps represent a record for us with a single day’s mileage in the Power Unit era”, technical director James Key explained.
Honda F1 Technical Director Toyoharu Tanabe said: “So far, our PU has run reliably and we are making progress in terms of its race settings.”
