Robert Kubica set the fastest time of the first day in the second week of pre-season testing at Barcelona, whilst Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel encountered spins during their sessions.
Kubica set a time of 1m 16.942 at the end of the morning session, which would not be eclipsed for the remainder of the day. Set on the softest compound tyres (C5), Verstappen was the fastest of the afternoon runners, setting his time on the harder C3 compound. His session was compromised however after a late spin which saw the session red-flagged.
Sebastian Vettel’s day did not go swimmingly, after bringing out the red flag during the session, following a spin coming out of turn six in the morning session.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez rounded out the top three, further underlining the impressive pace of the RP20 and the team’s improvement over the summer break; consistently hovering around the top positions in all days of testing.
Both AlphaTauri’s driven by Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly finished fourth and fifth respectively. Although, the Italian-based outfit were not without their issues, with Kvyat’s car suspected to have run out of fuel before reaching the pits. Gasly meanwhile had missed three hours of the morning session owing to car trouble.
Likewise, Albon completed minimal running in his time in the morning session.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finished seventh and ninth respectively, with 179 laps completed between both of them. Separating them was Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, who was briefly fastest in the morning session.
The only other red flag during the session was caused by Nicholas Latifi, after his Williams encountered an engine issue. George Russell took over testing duties in the afternoon session.
