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Testupdate: Ricciardo leads as Alonso loses a wheel

Published on 26 Feb 2018 13:24
8
By: Rob Veenstra

Red Bull Racing driver Daniel Ricciardo is the fastest after the morning session of the first day of winter testing in Barcelona. The Australian realised a best time of 1:20.179 during a long stint of more than thirty laps on the medium compound.

There have been two red flags so far. Fernando Alonso spun off in the first hour of testing. He went backwards into the gravel at Turn 16 after he lost a wheel. A problem with a wheelnut caused the crash. McLaren was able to fix the car and send Alonso back out again before the lunch break.

Nikita Mazepin was responsible for the other red flag. The Force India testdriver spun off at Turn 4.

Circuit de Catalunya - 26 February 2018

Driver

Team

Time

Difference

#
1

Daniel Ricciardo

Red Bull Racing

1:20.179

105
2

Valtteri Bottas

Mercedes

1:20.349

+0.170

58
3

Kimi Räikkönen

Ferrari

1:20.506

+0.327

80
4

Nico Hülkenberg

Renault

1:20.547

+0.368

73
5

Carlos Sainz jr

Renault

1:22.168

+1.989

26
6

Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes

1:22.327

+2.148

25
7

Fernando Alonso

McLaren

1:22.354

+2.175

51
8

Brendon Hartley

Toro Rosso

1:22.371

+2.192

93
9

Lance Stroll

Williams

1:22.452

+2.273

46
10

Romain Grosjean

Haas F1

1:22.578

+2.399

55
11

Marcus Ericsson

Sauber

1:23.408

+3.229

63
12

Nikita Mazepin

Force India

1:25.628

+5.449

22
13

Sergey Sirotkin

Williams

1:44.148

+23.969

28

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527

Times, yes. Speedtraps looked pretty bad though.

1
Feb 26 2018 - 19:39

Photos Barcelona, February 26, 2018

Open the whole photo album

F1 News Fernando Alonso Daniel Ricciardo Nikita Mazepin Red Bull Racing Force India McLaren

Replies (8)

boudy

Posts: 1,168
So the wheels fall off at mcLaren ... oohh dear ... is that an omen? Surely the Honda engine had issues, just checking ...nope they did 72 laps!

Let's hope mcLaren do better in the afternoon.
- + 0
- Feb 26 2018 - 14:00
Barron

Posts: 625
You couldn’t make this up. Come on McLaren, you need to bring your ‘A’ game this season! 1.3 secs off top spot and I could say that’s where you were with Honda towards the end of the season but everyone is in test mode now so everything changes. The really quick cars for the season will be fast out of the box, so there are no real surprises except perhaps Renault. McLaren have just signalled their 2018 placement as firmly in the midfield unless they can get themselves sorted and quickly. There doesn’t seem to be much wrong with the Renault power plant, or the Honda either. What an irony!
- + 0
- Feb 26 2018 - 15:32
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Lap times will say very little about their positions for this year. What will be representative is amount of laps. Progress for both Honda and Renault are to be expected, the question is: whom did it better?
  + 0
  
  Feb 26 2018 - 17:17
- Pauli
  
  Posts: 140
  Top 4 teams actually put in pretty impressive times if all of them did those in race simulation runs like I think they did. Weather is horrible for small window Pirellis and they managed to run faster than the Spanish GP a year ago. Specially Renault has put impressive times compared to other teams.
  + 0
  
  Feb 26 2018 - 18:29
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Times, yes. Speedtraps looked pretty bad though.
  + 1
  
  Feb 26 2018 - 19:39
calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
I wonder if something is up with Mercedes. Remember the raw amount of lap times they put in last year in close to every session? Meanwhile, Honda's already clocked 93 laps, and Red Bull got in 105. Surely this session wasnt representative?
- + 0
- Feb 26 2018 - 19:42
- Pauli
  
  Posts: 140
  It was very cold and afternoon saw rain. specially afternoon running offered very little development value. Except stuff like RB did with optical flow tracking paint on Halo.
  + 0
  
  Feb 26 2018 - 20:24
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  Yeah, it seems that way. I hope tomorrow will be better. Might be a wise idea to have winter testing in a warmer country next time.
  + 0
  
  Feb 26 2018 - 21:17