Barcelona F1 test: Hamilton fastest again as McLaren troubles continue

The three-time world champion led the way for much of the morning running with a 1m21.766s - 0.001s slower than the time that left him fastest overall on Monday - but he then dipped under the 1m21s mark for the first time with a super-soft run 20 minutes before lunch.

While his 1m20.9s represented an improvement of 0.8s, his final sector was 0.3s down on the best time he managed on the soft tyre, so a much bigger improvement was possible.

That left Hamilton 1.8s clear of Ferrari, which stuck to its plan of running the medium compound as Kimi Raikkonen took over from Sebastian Vettel for day two, despite reportedly suffering from flu.

After a late start, Force India made up for lost time with some soft-tyre runs for Esteban Ocon, leaving the Frenchman third in the order.

However, the team then caused the second red flag of the day just before the lunchbreak, with Ocon coming to a stop at the end of the back straight, past Turn 10.

The other stoppage was very brief, when Williams rookie Lance Stroll spun at Turn 9. As the Canadian had the track to himself and was able to rejoin after bouncing through the gravel at high-speed, the track was quickly declared clear again.

However, Stroll’s high-speed off appeared to damage the FW40, and after completing 12 laps early in the day he did not return to the track before lunch.

Other teams in trouble included Sauber and Renault, neither of which set a representative time.

Sauber said its delay was engine-related after stand-in Antonio Giovinazzi completed two installation laps early on, while Renault claimed it was continuing overnight work fitting new parts that had arrived for the RS17.

Renault’s plan to get out before the lunchbreak appeared to be scuppered by the Ocon stoppage, but with the session being extended beyond 1PM to allow for an extra five minutes of running, Jolyon Palmer headed out when the track reopened.

He was joined on track by Giovinazzi, who stayed out to post his first time of the day, 12.7s down on Hamilton’s best.

Mercedes used the extra five minutes of running to send Hamilton out on the ultra-soft tyre, but he returned to the pits before setting a time on the purple-marked compound.

After a problematic first day, McLaren’s running kicked off with Stoffel Vandoorne stopping the MCL32 in the pit entrance at the end of his second lap, but following a short spell in the garage after mechanics pushed the car back, Vandoorne was able to log 29 laps.

However, more bad news struck later in the morning, when Honda confirmed it was carrying out its second engine change of the week after losing power – with the cause of the problem unknown.

Red Bull – which also had reliability dramas on day one – completed the same number of laps as McLaren, with Kevin Magnussen and Max Verstappen making up the top five.

Morning times

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Tyre	Laps
1	L. Hamilton	Mercedes	1:20.983			66
2	K. Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:22.831	1.848		47
3	E. Ocon	Force India	1:23.045	2.062		27
4	K. Magnussen	Haas	1:23.200	2.217		36
5	M. Verstappen	Red Bull	1:23.212	2.229		31
6	D. Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:25.012	4.029		44
7	L. Stroll	Williams	1:26.040	5.057		12
8	S. Vandoorne	McLaren	1:26.201	5.218		29
9	A. Giovinazzi	Sauber	1:33.741	12.758		5
10	J. Palmer	Renault				1