(MENAFN- Gulf Times) New signing Valtteri Bottas put champions Mercedes on top of the timesheets yesterday with the fastest lap so far in Formula One's pre-season testing.
The Finn's best lap of one minute 19.310 seconds came on supersoft tyres in the morning session, with Bottas then handing over to triple champion team mate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon. The time was 0.395 faster than the best set last week, also by Bottas on ultrasoft tyres, and quicker than any Spanish Grand Prix pole position time since the Circuit de Catalunya layout was changed in 2007.
Bottas, who did 70 laps on Wednesday, joined from Williams in January as replacement for retired world champion Nico Rosberg. The Finn's former team mate Felipe Massa, who was fastest on Tuesday when he did an eye-catching 168 laps equal to 2-1/2 race distances, was second quickest and completed another 63 laps. The Brazilian then handed over the Williams to Canadian rookie Lance Stroll.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was third with a time of 1:20.406 but spent some time in the garage while the Italian team carried out a fluid systems check and completed just 39 laps before lunch.
Red Bull had to carry out an engine change over the lunch break with Max Verstappen managing only 34 laps — the second lowest of any team in the morning session.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso was last on distance and time, with a best of 1:23.041 and just 27 timed laps with the team still struggling with their latest Honda engines.
Racing director Eric Boullier told reporters that the lack of speed and mileage so far was a concern for the former champions with the season starting in Australia on March 26.
'If you are not running fast enough, you do not put the right energy into the tyres, you don't put the right energy in the brakes of the car, and your ride height targets are different, he said. 'There are a lot of consequences to run 15kph or 18kph slower in a straight line. But still, we make the most of the data we can gather just by running the car, and that is what we want to see.
Liberty Media, FIA set to rebrand GP2 as Formula Two
Formula One's new owner Liberty Media and the sport's governing International Automobile Federation are set to rebrand the GP2 support series as Formula Two, according to FIA president Jean Todt.
Todt said the aim was to complete a pyramid structure leading from karting through Formula Four, Three and Two to F1. 'Rationalising the pathway to Formula One has been a major goal of the FIA in my time here and the designation of a new F2 would achieve that goal, said Todt, who added that confirmation of the deal was imminent.
Liberty Media acquired GP2, which runs mostly as a support series to Formula One on grand prix weekends, as part of a takeover of the sport that was completed in January and led to the departure of previous supremo Bernie Ecclestone.
Formula One's new managing director for motorsport Ross Brawn said last week that the sport needed to offer more over a weekend and could learn from MotoGP. 'I'd love to see Formula Two and Formula Three be part of the show, and to have those drivers coming up through into Formula One, Brawn told an audience attending a book presentation in Oxford.
'So you go to a race and see the young guys in Formula Two and Formula Three come through into Formula One, you get to know the names and support them. Any MotoGP fans know that the riders work their way through and you see them in the lower formula. We want to recreate that in Formula One.
GP2 has seen a string of champions enter Formula One, including Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, but recent arrivals like Max Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Pascal Wehrlein have come from other categories. The GP2 season is due to start in Bahrain on April 15-16.
MENAFN0903201700670000ID1095301966
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.