» Vettel quickest as testing resumes

Sebastian Vettel has returned to the top of the timesheets as the second and final Formula 1 pre-season test got underway at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

While the German and his Ferrari team left the day with the quickest lap and an eye-watering 171 laps of mileage, former rivals McLaren continued to struggle with reliability woes throughout the day.

Vettel moved to the top of the timesheets shortly after midday with an effort of 1:20.396 on the Pirelli Medium tyres, eclipsing Valtteri Bottas’ best lap on Soft tyres by two-tenths of a second.

Bottas would have over the controls of the Mercedes F1 W09 to teammate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon. The reigning World Champion made steady progress up the time sheets and managed to place fourth-fastest with a late Soft tyre run. The two drivers combined to tally 177 laps for the day, equivalent to almost three race distances.

Splitting the two Mercedes drivers was Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen – his quickest lap came during the morning – although the Dutch driver did lose track time in the afternoon when his RB14 stopped at Turn 1. He was able to return to the track for the final fifteen minutes of running to ensure the car would be in top shape when teammate Daniel Ricciardo takes over.

McLaren’s woes have been in stark contrast to Honda’s new works team, Toro Rosso, although the team did suffer its first reliability glitch of the pre-season. With Pierre Gasly having gone a solid fourth-fastest, the Frenchman was forced to miss the last three and a half hours of the day while a brake system issue was investigated and fixed. The lost track time allowed him to be overhauled by Hamilton.

Like Bottas and Verstappen, Kevin Magnussen’s best time in the Haas came during the morning session. The Dane managed just under 100 laps for the day in the VF-18 and finished sixth-fastest ahead of Renault drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr. who both had time behind the wheel of the RS18.

An off-season switch from Honda to Renault has not done McLaren any favours, it would seem. Stoffel Vandoorne was assigned driving duties and barely managed an installation lap before his MCL33 suffered a shutdown. An hour later and a similar problem would strike, this time when he was exiting the final corner.

The Belgian was back on track just before the lunch break, but more dramas would strike in the afternoon when the car suffered a hydraulics problem. All up, the team managed a paltry 38 laps of mileage for the day.

2018 FORMULA 1 PRE-SEASON TEST – DAY 5 UNOFFICIAL TIMES
	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari SF71H	1:20.396		171
2.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:20.596	+ 0.200	86
3.	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing Tag Heuer RB14	1:20.649	+ 0.253	130
4.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1W09	1:20.808	+ 0.412	91
5.	Pierre Gasly	Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda STR13	1:20.973	+ 0.577	54
6.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team Ferrari VF-18	1:21.298	+ 0.902	96
8.	Nico Hülkenberg	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:21.432	+ 1.036	48
9.	Carlos Sainz Jr	Renault Sport F1 Team RS18	1:21.455	+ 1.059	93
10.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:21.588	+ 1.192	42
11.	Sergio Pérez	Force India F1 Team Mercedes VJM11	1:21.643	+ 1.247	93
12.	Marcus Ericsson	Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C37	1:21.706	+ 1.310	120
13.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren F1 Team Renault MCL33	1:21.946	+ 1.550	38
14.	Lance Stroll	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW41	1:22.937	+ 2.541	86