For the second day running it was a Mercedes atop the timesheet on Saturday, as the Formula One teams carried out their penultimate day of pre-season testing in Barcelona.
Felipe Massa set the morning pace for Williams on Pirelli’s supersoft tyre, but it was Lewis Hamilton who clocked the ultimate benchmark - a 1m 23.022s, recorded on soft rubber - a quarter of a second up on the Brazilian.
Kimi Raikkonen all but matched Massa’s time to finish third, also on a qualifying-type supersoft run in the Ferrari, while Carlos Sainz put Toro Rosso fourth, albeit over a second down on Hamilton’s marker.
In a productive day’s running, only two drivers failed to reach the 100 lap mark - Hamilton on 76, and Kevin Magnussen, who managed 39 on his first outing in the 2015 McLaren. Busiest man of the day was Nico Hulkenberg, who put another 158 laps on the new Force India following its Friday debut.
The day’s two red-flag stoppages both came in the final hour, with first Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber coming to a halt at Turn 3 and then Sainz’s Toro Rosso stopping at the same corner.
Unofficial Saturday testing times from Barcelona:
1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 23.022s, 76 laps
2. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1m 23.262s, 102 laps
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1m 23.276s, 136 laps
4. Carlos Sainz Jr, Toro Rosso, 1m 24.191s, 132 laps
5. Romain Grosjean, Lotus, 1m 24.200s, 116 laps
6. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1m 24.477s, 123 laps
7. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1m 24.939s, 158 laps
8. Kevin Magnussen, McLaren, 1m 25.225s, 39 laps
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1m 25.742s, 128 laps
(source: f1.com)
