Bottas makes his mark on final day of testing

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas had the fastest lap on the final day of Formula One testing in Barcelona.

Bottas had a time of 1 minute, 16.904 seconds at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, just ahead of Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi.McLaren’s young reserve driver Lando Norris was third fastest.

Bottas’ time was the fastest ever in testing at Barcelona, although it was about eight tenths of a second slower than the track record set by teammate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

“We had a good baseline from last weekend and used it to work on different set-ups, trying out bigger changes than we normally would on a race weekend,” explained Bottas, who came runner-up to Hamilton in the last race.

“We also tried to gather some information on the tyres, as we will see similarly smooth tarmac at Silverstone and Paul Ricard. I enjoyed being back in the car and I’m looking forward to being back in action next weekend in Monaco.”

Giovinazzi ran 148 laps last Wednesday, the most of the 13 drivers who made it to the track. Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Charles Leclerc of Sauber and Pierre Gasly of Toro Rosso also took part, with most other teams using junior and development drivers.

Williams used reserve driver Robert Kubica, who at the weekend was back in an official F1 session for the first time since almost losing his hand in a rally accident in 2011. Max Verstappen had the fastest time with Red Bull on the first day of testing on Tuesday, clocking 1:17.538.