Encouragement for Ferrari as Kimi Raikkonen tops day two at Barcelona

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time on the second day of Formula 1’s opening pre-season test, beating Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton into second place.

Taking over at the wheel of the SF70H from his teammate Sebastian Vettel, Raikkonen set a best time of 1m20.960s at 3pm local time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya using Pirelli’s soft compound tyre. The 2007 world champion set that time on the first flying lap of five-lap run.

Raikkonen completed a total of 108 laps for Ferrari, which also set the fastest time of winter testing in 2016. The Scuderia ultimately endured a disappointing season last year, but it was in the hunt for victories during the early races.

Hamilton was handed driving duties during the morning running for Mercedes – a reverse of its order from yesterday when Valtteri Bottas drove first – and he set his best time just before lunch with a 1m20.983s, set on the supersoft tyres, on the second lap of a five-lap run.

Although that time ended up being 0.023s slower than Raikkonen’s later effort, Hamilton set a third sector time of 27.723s, which was 0.3s slower than his best time through that part of the lap.

Raikkonen and Hamilton, who completed 66 of Mercedes’ total of 168 laps, were the only two drivers to beat the triple world champion’s best time from day one, which was a 1m21.765s, set on the soft tyres.

Max Verstappen ended the day with the third fastest time, and he chalked up 73 laps over the course of his first day in the RB13. The Dutch driver’s best time of 1m22.200s, which he set on the soft compound tyre on the first flying lap of a 13-lap stint, was 1.240s slower than Raikkonen’s table topping time.

Verstappen lost time compared to his best efforts in the first and third sector, and would have been 0.25s faster overall if all his best splits were added together.

Kevin Magnussen made up for Haas F1’s disrupted first day of running by completing 118 laps – the most of any single driver – and the Dane finished with the fourth fastest time.

Esteban Ocon ended up fifth quickest on his first day in Force India’s VJM10. The French driver completed 86 laps, but did cause a red flag just before the lunch break.

Daniil Kvyat was sixth for Toro Rosso, with Bottas seventh for Mercedes. The Finnish driver completed a race simulation during his half-day in the WO8, and finished with a total of 102 laps.

During his race simulation – which was split into four stints of 21, 20, 10 and 12 laps – Bottas lapped in the 1m26s and 1m25s during his first two runs, before saving a huge sideways moment at Turn 9 during a his third stint, which was disrupted as Mercedes subsequently checked on the car.

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Jolyon Palmer ended up in eighth place for Renault. The Briton, who took over from Nico Hulkenberg for the second day of the test, managed 53 laps in the afternoon after work to fit new parts to the RS17 meant he only completed an installation lap during the morning running.

Sauber, which has signed GP3 racer Tatiana Calderón as a development driver for the 2017 season, had Ferrari reserve and 2016 GP2 runner up Antonio Giovinazzi conducting its running in place of the injured Pascal Wehrlein.

The Italian driver completed 67 laps and ended up with the ninth fastest time, despite losing much of the morning session due to an engine problem.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Lance Stroll, who both endured difficult first appearances of the season for McLaren and Williams respectively, occupied the final two spots on the timesheets.

Vandoorne completed 29 laps during the morning session – after being recovered from the pit entry at the end of his second lap – but then lost almost five hours after McLaren was forced to change his Honda power unit. He did get out again in the afternoon, but only added 11 more laps to his total.

Stroll caused the first red flag of the day when he spun at the exit of Barcelona’s high-speed Turn 9. Although the Canadian rookie was able to return to the pits, Williams was forced to end its running for the day as the front wing had sustained damage in the trip across the gravel and the team did not have replacement parts available.

Barcelona test one, day two, results:

1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m20.960s, 108 laps (softs)

2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m20.983s +0.023s, 66 laps (supersofts)

3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1m22.200s +1.240s, 89 laps (softs)

4 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1m22.204s +1.244s, 118 laps (supersofts)

5 Esteban Ocon Force India 1m22.509s +1.549s, 86 laps (supersofts)

6 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1m22.956s +1.996s, 68 laps (softs)

7 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1m22.986s +2.026s, 102 laps (softs)

8 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m24.139s +3.179s, 53 laps (softs)

9 Antonio Giovinazzi Sauber 1m24.617s +3.657s, 67 laps (softs)

10 Stoffel Vandoorne McLaren 1m25.600s +4.640s, 40 laps (softs)

11 Lance Stroll Williams 1m26.040s +5.080s, 12 laps (mediums)