F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Bottas puts Mercedes back in charge on final day of testing

Valtteri Bottas concluded pre-season testing with the fastest lap on Friday, allowing Mercedes to retain its bragging rights as the best performing team in Barcelona.

Bottas logged 60 laps in the afternoon session, setting a best time on the C5 tyre of 1m16.196s, that just beat Max Verstappen's best by 0.073s. The Finn also ends the week with the best lap over in testing, his milestone 1m15.732s withstanding the test of time in Week 2.

Daniel Ricciardo's morning benchmark put the Renault driver third third overall, 0.080s adrift from pacesetter Bottas.

Charles Leclerc's effort earlier in the day left the Ferrari driver fourth at the end of the session, the Monegasque ending his afternoon with a whopping 166 laps on the board.

Bottas, Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen took over from their respective teammates after the lunch break while the rest of the field remained unchanged.

Ocon's afternoon 67-lap tally surpassed Ricciardo's morning workout, but the Frenchman couldn't match his teammate's pace, concluding his day P6, over a tenth away from the Aussie.

Kevin Magnussen's program was hampered by a clutch issue on his VF-20 that left the Dane stranded in the Haas garage and with just 26 laps or f running.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Michael Delaney

Recent Posts

Verstappen warns of ‘big shunts’ at daunting new Madrid circuit

Max Verstappen is expecting Formula 1’s latest new race on the calendar to come with…

4 hours ago

Brundle: Russell likely ‘bruised’ by painful Monza defeat

Sky F1's Martin Brundle suspects George Russell has every reason to look back on Monza…

5 hours ago

Scheckter brings it home for Ferrari and himself at Monza

On this day in 1979, Jody Scheckter delivered the world title to himself and to…

7 hours ago

A new Iceman cometh: Robin Raikkonen joins Red Bull Junior Team

The legend of the Iceman officially enters its next generation. Robin Räikkönen, the 11-year-old karting…

8 hours ago

Hamilton sends Ferrari fans clear message: ‘I don’t race dirty’

Lewis Hamilton has moved to extinguish any fears that his opening-lap clash with Charles Leclerc…

8 hours ago

Wolff: Antonelli ‘like an AI agent’ in relentless F1 evolution

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has watched Kimi Antonelli’s rise from promising rookie to Formula 1…

10 hours ago