Valtteri Bottas on Friday set the fastest lap time on the final day of Formula One testing, as Mercedes maintained its status of title favorite heading into the new season.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo were right behind the Finnish driver within one-10th of a second on the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit.
Last week, Bottas recorded the fastest time of any driver in the six-day pre-season.
Photo: EFE
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc put in the fourth best time and defending champion Lewis Hamilton put in the fifth best time.
Leclerc was the busiest driver, with 177 laps completed, while teammate Sebastian Vettel rested.
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto had to acknowledge that Mercedes looked to be way ahead.
“I said I was not optimistic as I was last year and I think I can confirm it,” Binotto said. “We are certainly not the fastest car in testing.”
The final day of the tests went smoothly for most drivers, with no major incidents or red flags.
Alex Albon of Red Bull and Kimi Raikkonen of Alfa Romeo spun off the track in the morning half of the session, but both were able to get back going.
Mercedes fixed the oil pressure problem that brought Hamilton’s car to a stop on Thursday, limiting the six-time champion to just 14 laps. On Friday, Hamilton put in 90 error-free laps before handing it over to Bottas.
The absence of major changes to this season’s rules appears to give an even bigger advantage to Mercedes, who can just improve on its already dominant car from last year.
Still, Hamilton said that reliability might be their weak spot.
“We’re on our third engine already, so it’s definitely not an easy or relaxed scenario for us,” he said.
“The engine is actually very good,” he added. “It’s just not quite where we want it to be reliability-wise.
The season-opening Australian Grand Prix is on March 15.
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