Mercedes and Ferrari on top after first day of testing

Published on 27 February 2017 by Stefan Meens

Mercedes finished the first day of pre-season testing for the 2017 Formula 1 World Championship at the top of the table. After Valtteri Bottas drove in the morning session, Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the afternoon with the fastest lap of the day (1:21.765). The Mercedes driver’s quickest effort was three seconds faster than the quickest time set on day one of the 2016 first pre-season test.

Sebastian Vettel, fastest in the morning session, continued Ferrari’s strong form in the afternoon by setting the second quickest lap of the day. The German, on the medium Pirellis, was only a tenth shy of Hamilton’s time, which was set on the soft compound. Felipe Massa (Williams) and Kevin Magnussen (Haas F1) completed the top four.

After a slow start to the day, with only four laps in the morning, Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo managed half a century of laps in the afternoon. Max Verstappen’s team mate set the fifth quickest time of the day.

Ricciardo: “This morning, our issues were located deep inside the car which meant we had to dismantle a lot of the car, which cost us a lot of time. In the afternoon, we had some issues with the battery. It was a safety thing so it meant we had work on the car again. The floor had to come off which takes more time than to actually solve the problem. We’re playing it safe on the first day of the test.”

Despite limited running, the Australian is encouraged: “The car felt good and we still managed 50 laps. We’ve learned a lot in the last couple of hours and we really understood the car a lot better at the end of the session. That’s what testing is all about. It was pretty cold so once we’re actually racing, thins might look different.”

On Tuesday, Max Verstappen will take over from Ricciardo and make his debut in the RB13.

Pre-Season Test 1 - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - Monday 27 February 2017

RESULTS DAY 1 - AFTERNOON SESSION
	 
1	 L. Hamilton	 Mercedes	1:21.765		73
2	 S. Vettel	 Ferrari	1:21.878		128
3	 F. Massa	 Williams	1:22.076		103
4	 K. Magnussen	 Haas	        1:23.894		51
6	 D. Ricciardo	 Red Bull	1:22.926		50
5	 V. Bottas	 Mercedes	1:23.169		79
7	 S. Pérez	 Force India	1:23.709		39
8	 C. Sainz	 Toro Rosso	1:24.494		51
9	 N. Hülkenberg	 Renault	1:24.784		57
10	 F. Alonso	 McLaren	1:24.852		29
11	 M. Ericsson	 Sauber	        1:26.841		72