PRE-SEASON TEST #1 - DAY #1 - RE-CAP & TIMES
Ricciardo set his fastest time of the day – a 1m20.179s – in the morning session, with cooler conditions limiting running after the lunch break.
He managed a total of 105 laps over the two sessions, 12 laps more than the Honda powered Toro Rosso of Brendon Hartley who was second in the lap chart order.
Valtteri Bottas was second quickest, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Nico Hulkenberg.
Honda claimed a small victory over previous partner McLaren. While Hartley spent the morning adding to his lap count, Fernando Alonso brought out the first red flag of the season.
The right rear wheel of his McLaren had come off on just his sixth lap of the day, sending him into the gravel. A wheel nut problem was blamed for the incident and Alonso spent most of the morning in the pits.
He eventually managed to put in a competitive lap time, ending the day seventh fastest and 0.02s faster than Hartley, but only managed 51 laps compared to the Honda’s 93.
As a point of reference, the McLaren-Honda managed just over 200 laps over the course of the first preseason test of 2017.
The second and final red flag of the day was brought out by Nikita Mazepin in the Force India. Mazepin span halfway through the morning session, beaching the VJM11 in the gravel at turn 4.
It signaled the end of Mazepin’s day. The Force India was brought back to the pits but a brake cooling problem kept it there for longer than expected.
With track temperature dropping by nearly 10 degrees over the lunch break, Force India opted not to send the car back out once the issue was resolved.
Mazepin finished the day 12th fastest, five seconds off the pace.
Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jnr was the fastest of those only running in the afternoon. He managed just 26 laps, a third of his team-mate’s total, and was 1.3s slower than Hulkenberg, but still managed fifth fastest.
Lewis Hamilton, taking over from Bottas, was sixth quickest ahead of Alonso and Hartley.
Sergey Sirotkin, the only rookie running in the first day of testing, took over from Lance Stroll for the afternoon session. He completed nearly 30 laps but didn’t set a competitive lap time in his first session as an F1 driver.
Team-mate Stroll managed ninth fastest, ahead of Romain Grosjean and Marcus Ericsson.
TIMES:
1. Daniel Ricciardo – 1:20.179 / Red Bull Racing-TAG-Heuer / 105 Laps
2. Valtteri Bottas (AM) - 1:20.349 / Mercedes-Mercedes / 58 Laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen - 1:20.506 / Ferrari-Ferrari / 80 Laps
4. Nico Hulkenberg (AM) - 1:20.547 / Renault-Renault / 73 Laps
5. Carlos Sainz (PM) - 1:22.168 / Renault-Renault / 26 Laps
6. Lewis Hamilton (PM) – 1:22.327 / Mercedes-Mercedes / 25 Laps
7. Fernando Alonso – 1:22.354 / McLaren-Renault / 51 Laps
8. Brendon Hartley – 1:22.371/ Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda / 93 Laps
9. Lance Stroll (AM) – 1:22.452 / Williams-Mercedes / 46 Laps
10. Romain Grosjean - 1:22.578 / Haas-Ferrari / 55 Laps
11. Marcus Ericsson - 1:23.408 / Sauber-Ferrari / 63 Laps
12. Nikita Mazepin - 1:25.628 / Force India-Mercedes / 22 Laps
13. Sergey Sirotkin (PM) – 1:44.148 / Williams-Mercedes / 28 Laps
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Article Written By: Bethonie Waring
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