Winter Testing Day 8 – Final Round Up

Vettel set his fastest time in the morning session with a 1:16.221 before Kimi Raikkonen and his Alfa Romeo brought the session to a halt with a red flag when his car stopped on track.

The German notched up 110 laps before causing a red flag in the afternoon session, his car stopping at turn 3, ending Ferrari’s programme of winter testing.

Along with Vettel, Daniil Kyvat, Carlos Sainz, Raikkonen and Sergio Perez all managed to respectively complete over 100 laps each. With Sainz topping the list at 134 laps.

Lewis Hamilton replaced Valtteri Bottas for the afternoon in the Mercedes as he came very close to matching Vettels time. He set a 1:16.224, just .003 off the top whilst his teammate had set a 1:16.561 in the morning. A total of 132 laps for the Silver Arrows.

Nico Hulkenberg replaced Daniel Ricciardo in the Renault for the afternoon and finished with the fourth fastest time (1:16.843) whilst completing a total of … laps.

After Pierre Gasly’s big crash yesterday afternoon it had seemed that Red Bull were packing up to leave, but they managed to work hard and get the car ready for Max Verstappen to take out on track today.

He didn’t get a lot of track time though as a gearbox issue left him with only 29 laps in total and eleventh fastest with a time of 1:17.709.

Kevin Magnussen was the last replacement for the afternoon as he took over the Haas from Romain Grosjean, putting in some serious mileage with 94 laps in total before causing a red flag just before the end of the session.

Majority of the rest of the teams had focused on long runs in the afternoon session, rather than qualifying and fastest laps.

Robert Kubica spent his day in the Williams and notched a total of 90 laps, much of the end of the afternoon session was in/out of the pits practicing pit stops.

So, Ferrari have shown some blistering pace throughout the past two weeks, McLaren have been a surprise as to how quick their car could potentially be, and Mercedes have been rather quiet for the majority of testing before Hamilton nearly matching Vettel’s time this afternoon.

Red Bull have had their struggles the past couple of days, especially after that Gasly crash, whilst Renault, Haas, Toro Rosso and Racing Point all seem to be around the same level.

We eventually saw the Williams appear at the end of last week which was good to see, but whether their car will sit at the back or compete in the midfield is another question.

Who do you think will be on pole in Melbourne in the first Grand prix of this season?

Times & Laps
 
Sebastian Vettel – Ferrari – 1:16.221 – 110
Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:16.224 – 61
Valtteri Bottas – Mercedes – 1:16.561 – 71
Nico Hulkenberg – Renault – 1:16.843 – 51
Daniil Kyvat – Toro Rosso – 1:16.898 – 131
Carlos Sainz – McLaren – 1:16.913 – 134
Romain Grosjean – Haas – 1:17.076 – 73
Daniel Ricciardo – Renault – 1:17.114 – 52
Kimi Raikkonen – Alfa Romeo – 1:17.239 – 132
Kevin Magnussen – Haas – 1:17.565 – 94
Max Verstappen – Red Bull – 1:17.709 – 29
Sergio Perez – Racing Point – 1:17.791 – 104
Robert Kubica – Williams – 1:18.993 - 90