Raikkonen quickest on final day of pre-season testing

Published on 09 March 2018 by Stefan Meens

On the final day of Formula 1's pre-season testing, Kimi Raikkonen was fastest for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso surprised, after a troublesome morning for his McLaren team, by being second quickest around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing finished their testing campaign with Daniel Ricciardo in fourth. The Australian, Max Verstappen’s team mate, completed 92 laps. The most productive rider of the day, Romain Grosjean driving the Haas, clocked 181 laps.

Despite clouds in the afternoon following sunshine in the morning, the temperature never dipped below 19 degrees; a stark contrast to the rain and snow in the first week of testing.

It meant the teams were out in force in an attempt to make the most of the final opportunity to gather on-track data before the season opener in Melbourne in a fortnight.

Mercedes, Ferrari, Force India, Williams, Scuderia Toro Rosso and Haas all completed more than a century of laps. Some teams, in particular McLaren and Renault, struggled. The British outfit were plagued by turbo issues in the morning, but were able to make up for lost time with Alonso completing 93 laps. Their French colleagues struggled throughout the day with gearbox issues. Carlos Sainz added only 41 laps in the afternoon to his four managed in the morning.

During the final hour, Ricciardo headed out on the super-soft Pirellis, resulting in the Australian’s fastest lap of the day. However, his efforts were not enough to top the timing sheets.

Instead, Raikkonen, Alonso and Sainz all go quicker. However, the trio all set their fastest laps on the softest compound available - the new Pirellis hyper-soft.

Pre-Season Test 2 - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Friday 9 March 2018

   Driver       	Team              Time         	          Laps
1  Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari		  1:17.221		  157	
2  Fernando Alonso	McLaren		  1:17.784	+0.563	  93	
3  Carlos Sainz		Renault		  1:18.092	+0.871 	  45	
4  Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	  1:18.327	+1.106	  92
5  Romain Grosjean	Haas F1		  1:18.412	+1.191	  181	
6  Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	  1:18.825	+1.604	  104	
7  Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	  1:18.949	+1.728	  156	
8  Esteban Ocon		Force India	  1:18.967	+1.746	  163	
9  Charles Leclerc	Sauber		  1:19.118	+1.897	  75	
10 Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	  1:19.189	+1.968	  105	
11 Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	  1:19.464	+2.243	  97	
12 Lance Stroll		Williams	  1:19.954	+2.733	  27

Next stop: Melbourne, Australia, for the first Grand Prix of the 2018 Formula 1 World Championship. Verstappen.nl will be the place to be for all Max Verstappen related news!