Bottas quickest on final day in Bahrain as McLaren improve

Valtteri Bottas set the quickest time of the final day of in-season testing in Bahrain, posting a time of 1:31.280 as the Mercedes driver worked through 143 laps of the Sakhir Circuit.

The Finn’s time eclipsed that of Sebastian Vettel by just under three tenths of a second. The lap total gap between the Mercedes driver and his Ferrari counterpart was much greater, however, with Vettel logging just 64 laps as he spent a significant portion of the day in the garage.

Ferrari had brought Vettel to the garage during the morning session for a set-up change but work on the car revealed hydraulic leaks with the result that the German managed just eight laps before lunch. Vettel then lost more time in the afternoon when data logging problems sidelined him for a period. He ended the day with a best time of 1:31.574.

Third quickest was Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz. Team-mate Daniil Kvyat ran in the morning, recording a best time of 1:32.313 to take seventh place, but Sainz was able to up the pace in the afternoon with a time of 1:31884, just six tenths behind Bottas.

After a troubled opening day in which Oliver Turvey managed just 17 laps, McLaren enjoyed a much more profitable outing today, with Stoffel Vandoorne completing 81 laps and setting the day’s fourth-quickest lap of 1:32.108, just under a second off the pace of Mercedes.

Yesterday Romain Grosjean fourth for Haas as the team evaluate brakes supplied by Carbone Industrie and the work continued into day two with Kevin Magnussed setting the day’s fifth-fastest time of 1:32.120.

The Dane finished the day two tenths clear of Force India’s Esteban Ocon and with Kvyat in seventh, eighth place went to Williams tester Gary Paffett, while Sergey Sirotkin was ninth was Renault.

Red Bull Junior Programme driver Pierre Gasly took from Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel of Red Bull Racing’s RB13 and after power unit issues sidelined the Australian yesterday afternoon today the team was restricted to the garage for a long period in the afternoon while it fixed an exhaust issue. The length delay meant Gasly completed 65 laps and finishing 10th ahead of Sauber’s Pascal Wehrlein and Force India’s Sergio Perez.