Raikkonen posts fastest times of Winter Testing on final day; McLaren suffer another double breakdown and outpace only Sauber; Hamilton finishes strongly on soft tyres
Friday 17 March 2017 09:39, UK
Ferrari set a searing pace on the final day of F1 Winter Testing to deliver a potential statement of intent ahead of the 2017 season.
Kimi Raikkonen posted the quickest times of the eight days at Barcelona and was the only driver to break the 1:19 barrier all winter, with his best lap of 1:18.634 on supersoft tyres 0.6s faster than Mercedes managed.
Mercedes, F1's world champions, appeared to carry more fuel on their shorter runs with Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton 1.2 seconds back in fourth and fifth places respectively.
ANALYSIS: Are Ferrari really favourites?
Red Bull finished a mixed winter strongly on the timesheet as Max Verstappen posted their best times of 2017 to take second place, although his supersoft tyre runs were 0.8s slower than Ferrari's.
But the situation remains critical for McLaren with no more track time before Melbourne, after repeat electrical issues stopped the MCL32 on track twice for the second day in succession.
Fernando Alonso completed only 43 laps and wound up 11th quickest on the timesheet, 2.7 seconds off the pace.
Are Ferrari ready to take on Mercedes?
After Mercedes' Hamilton claimed Ferrari were "bluffing" about their new car's ultimate potential, the sight of the Scuderia topping a winter timesheet for the fourth time out of eight is bound to heighten expectations over their form heading to the first race in Melbourne on March 26.
"They've done a fantastic job and I think there's more to come from them," said Hamilton after the end of testing. "Their pace has been spectacular," said the Mercedes driver. "The others look very quick and it looks like we have a good battle on our hands."
A series of quick laps in the morning from Raikkonen meant Ferrari finished the test with the quickest times on all three of Pirelli's fastest compounds, with the Finn's 1:18.634 on supersofts within three tenths of a second of the fastest-ever lap recorded around the current version of the Barcelona circuit.
Ferrari did suffer one hiccup on the final day though, when the SF70-H stopped on track in the afternoon with an electrical glitch.
However, the problem was sufficiently minor for Raikkonen to be able to return to action in the final hour and end the day with 111 laps on the board.
"It was quite positive, the car felt good straight away and that's always a good sign after the hard work the team has put in over the winter and last year for this car," Raikkonen told Sky in Italy. "It's very early days and for sure we have things to learn and things to try still, you can never have enough testing.
"But this is what we got and we have to be quite pleased and positive with it and see where we are at the first race."
McLaren fortunes fail to improve
Not for the first time in 2017 testing, McLaren finished the day with the fewest number of laps completed after a recurrence of the electrical issues that hindered Stoffel Vandoorne's running on Thursday returned to curtail Alonso's time in the car.
The 43 laps the MCL32 did complete were again racked up during short stints with the new Honda-powered car yet to complete more than 11 laps in succession.
Alonso did post his quickest lap of the winter in the afternoon, 1:21.389, but it was a whopping 2.7s adrift of the leading pace despite using Pirelli's fastest tyres.
Breakdowns galore on final day
Six of the 10 teams cleared 100 laps on the final day of an intensive winter but Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Force India and Haas were all stopped by technical trouble during the course of the session.
Red Bull lost the first few hours of the afternoon while they checked a turbo issue, while Haas joined McLaren in twice stopping on track - with Romain Grosjean finding the Turn Four gravel trap during the morning.
The first race of the season is the Australian GP on March 26.
Day Four, Test Two Timesheet
1) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 111 laps, supersoft tyres, 1:18.634
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 71 laps, supersoft tyres, 1:19.438
3) Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 132 laps, ultrasoft tyres, 1:19.837
4) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 53 laps, supersoft tyres, 1:19.845
5) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 54 laps, ultrasoft tyres, 1:19.850
6) Nico Hulkenberg, Renault, 45 laps, ultrasoft tyres, 1:19.885
7) Sergio Perez, Force India, 128 laps, ultrasoft tyres, 1:20.116
9) Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 43 laps, supersoft tyres 1:20.205
9) Lance Stroll, Williams, 132 laps, soft tyres, 1:20.335
10) Romain Grosjean, Haas, 76 laps, ultrasoft tyres, 1:21.110
11) Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 43 laps, ultrasoft tyres, 1:21.389
12) Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 59 laps, supersoft tyres, 1:21.670
13) Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber, 42 laps, soft tyres, 1:24.940.
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