Ferrari had left us wanting more after day 3 of the second pre-season test by teasing us with Sebastian Vettel’s fastest lap of 1:19.024. On the final day, however, Kimi Raikkonen bolted on a set of super softs and lit up the timing screens by setting the fastest lap of pre-season testing for 2017 and was the only driver to break the 1:18’s with a fastest time of 1:18.634.
“There’s a good feeling with this car and that’s the most important thing,” said Raikkonen.
“We have been reliable for almost all of these days of testing and that is another good sign of the great work the team has done over the winter.
“We are starting from a stronger base than last year: but it’s really too early to say how fast the car is compared to the others.”
Max Verstappen had some turbo issues but still got the 2nd fastest time completing 71 laps. Topping the joint lap count on day 4 was Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso with 132 laps to his name and the 3rd fastest time for the day.
Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton finished the day 4th and 5th fastest completing 107 laps between them.
Both drivers were out for Renault today with Nico Hulkenberg piloting the R.S.17 in the morning session before Jolyon Palmer in the afternoon. Hulkenberg lauded the performance of the Renault describing his morning as a “quality morning”. Hulkenberg placed 6th while Palmer ended his day in 8th.
Finishing 7th fastest between the two Renault’s was Force India’s Sergio Perez. He clocked up 128 laps in the VJM10 and concluded a solid day for Force India.
Lance Stroll was back in the Williams for the final day of running and like Sainz, racked up 132 laps before the chequered flag at the end of the day. Stroll who is still finding his footing with Williams was 9th fastest.
Romain Grosjean rounded out the top 10 for the Haas team. He had to cut his running short after suffering from a water leak 20mins from the end of the afternoon session.
Fernando Alonso had another day in the McLaren which he would want to forget. The MCL32 suffered from electrical issues which caused the Spaniard to stop twice out on track. The team managed to complete some running and he was able to complete 43 laps.
Rounding off the running was the Sauber drivers with Marcus Ericsson piloting the C36 in the morning with Pascal Wehrlein in the afternoon. Between the two drivers they completed 101 laps.
Teams now begin the pack up and head back to their respective factories to run the data they’ve collected over the past two weeks. The cars will be much more improved by the time they turn a wheel in Melbourne in two weeks time and we’ll finally get an idea of the running order.
FINAL DAY NUMBERS 👀
Fastest lap time of pre-season testing ✅
132 laps for rookie Lance Stroll ✅
6 drivers under 1:20.000 ✅#F1Testing pic.twitter.com/Mm7FxLMoUj— Formula 1 (@F1) March 10, 2017
