Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari use ultrasoft tyres to go fastest of all in F1 testing

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of Formula 1 winter testing so far on both the ultrasoft and soft tyres for Ferrari as many teams conducted performance runs on the penultimate day of pre-season running.

Raikkonen, who had earlier caused quite a stir when he conducted a one-lap test run with the “Halo” cockpit protection device fitted to his car, set his best time of 1m22.785s on the ultrasoft tyre one hour before the lunch break.

That time is the quickest lap set so far in 2016 testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and beats the previous best, which was recorded by Raikkonen’s Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel in the first test, by 0.045s.

The Finn had already been the fastest runner at that point as he set a time of 1m23.009s, the best time seen so far on the soft compound by 0.013s over Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

In the afternoon session, Raikkonen completed a 66-lap full race simulation and ended up with 136 laps on the board.

Felipe Massa was second fastest on the day for Williams. The Brazilian driver clocked up 119 laps with a best of 1m23.193s, which he set on the soft tyre. Allowing for the time delta from soft tyre to ultra soft, over a second, this was an impressive lap by Massa and Williams.

Like Raikkonen, Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen also posted their best times of the day on the ultrasoft tyre, which was a 1m23.251s for the German and a 1m23.382s for the Dutchman.

The pair ended the day third and fourth fastest and Verstappen completed 159 laps, the most for any driver and team.

The Force India has been preethi fast this winter testing period, which is unusual on the Barcelona circuit, which has not always been their kind of track. It looks quite promising for the beleaguered Vijay Mallya's team.

Rosberg was fifth quickest for Mercedes, which focused on set up work on the medium tyre, and the German driver set a best time of 1m24.126s on the soft tyres.

His teammate Lewis Hamilton only set the 11th fastest time during his half-day in the WO7, but between them the two Mercedes drivers notched up another 144 laps.

Hamilton focused on a race simulation in the afternoon, particularly looking consistency on the Pirelli tyres, which feature the underlying compound layer, which provides a 'cliff' of performance. Keeping that at bay is going to be crucial this year. Red Bull already seems to be on top of that, particularly with Ricciardo.

Felipe Nasr was sixth fastest for Sauber, just ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso, who used the supersoft tyres to record a 1m24.870s in the MP4-31. The Spanish driver completed 118 laps in total on his final day of testing for the British team.

Pascal Wehrlein was eighth for Manor as Daniil Kvyat went ninth fastest on a low-key day for Red Bull, although the team did complete 121 laps and spent time practicing pitstops in the morning session.

Jolyon Palmer ended up 10th for Renault and the British driver completed 98 laps on Thursday, almost 20 more than the 79 he managed during his two days in the RS16 last week.

Haas F1 brought up the rear of field once again but it complete 78 laps with Romain Grosjean after failing to post a time yesterday.

https://twitter.com/Jamesallenonf1/status/705391099213250562

But the Frenchman did cause three red flags – two either side of lunch and one shortly before the end of the day – the first happened when he went off into the gravel at Turn 4, the second when he spun off at Turn 1 and the last occurred when he stopped on the back straight.

Results: Barcelona test two, day two:

1 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m22.765s, 136 laps U/Soft

2 Felipe Massa Williams 1m23.192s +0.428, 119 laps Soft

3 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1m23.251s +0.486, 137 laps U/Soft

4 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m23.382s +0.617, 159 laps U/Soft

5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.126s +1.361, 81 laps Medium

6 Felipe Nasr Sauber 1m24.760s +1.995, 116 laps Soft

7 Fernando Alonso McLaren 1m24.870s +2.105, 118 laps S/Soft

8 Pascal Wehrlein Manor 1m24.913s +2.148, 48 laps U/Soft

9 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull 1m25.141s +2.376, 121 laps Soft

10 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m26.224s +3.459, 98 laps Soft

11 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m26.488s +3.723, 63 laps Medium

12 Romain Grosjean Haas F1 1m27.196s +4.431, 78 laps Soft