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Valtteri Bottas continued the Mercedes domination of Formula One with the fastest overall lap in testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya.
Furthermore, in a worrying development for track rivals, one of the team’s youthful prospects secured the fastest time on the final day of the two-day test after taking over from Bottas.
The Finn, second in the championship after losing to team mate Lewis Hamilton in the recent Spanish Grand Prix, lapped with a best time of 1.15.511 seconds last Tuesday.
The time was slower than his pole time of 1:15.406 but still considerably quicker than Hamilton’s best lap in qualifying.
Bottas also did 131 laps, the equivalent of almost two race distances.
Bottas explained: “This test has been really good. We completed a lot of laps and learned a lot. Our programme focused on the tyres and setup. We collected lots of data over the race weekend in similar conditions to what we had during the test in terms of temperature and wind, so it was nice to do some comparisons.
“There were some new mechanical test items on the car too which were interesting to try out. Everyone did a really good job after a long weekend, so it’s been another successful session.”
Formula Two driver Nikita Mazepin was in the hot seat last Wednesday for his official test debut and the 20-year-old lapped with a best time of 1.15.775 seconds on the softest C5 tyres, whilst completing 128 laps.
“Today was incredible. Being a part of this team, even just for this day was very special for me,” said the Russian, whose billionaire father tried unsuccessfully to buy the Force India (now Racing Point) team last year. “It’s every young driver’s dream to drive a car like this and today mine came true.”
Champions Mercedes have won all of the first five races of the season with one-two finishes and look in imperious form.
The German team’s chief race engineer, Andrew Shovlin, said: “We’ve had a trouble free couple of days and got through most of the programme. The number of test days is so limited now that you always end up with a very busy programme and it’s important that everything arrives on time with it being our last chance to test this season.
“We’ve had a number of developments on the chassis and Power Unit side which we can hopefully bring to the race car over the next few races. We’ve also done some work on setup for the softer compounds that will be appearing in Monaco and Montreal - the next two races, along with some longer run work.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was second fastest in 1:16.933 with Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat third on the timesheets in 1:17.679.
Canadian Nicholas Latifi, the Williams reserve driver, covered the most distance with 134 laps but was also the slowest.
Britain’s Callum Ilott tested for Alfa Romeo but crashed heavily, escaping injury but damaging the car.
The junior drivers were in a majority, with Ferrari’s race regular Charles Leclerc mostly tyre testing for Pirelli along with Racing Point’s Lance Stroll.
