Raikkonen fastest for Alfa Romeo on day two in Spain

Pre-season Testing

Raikkonen fastest for Alfa Romeo on day two in Spain

Lots of running as a few gremlins begin to creep in

Ian Parkes

Thursday 20 February 2020 18:17

The Formula 1 field opted for durability over pace on the second day of pre-season testing.

With the 2020 cars an evolution from last year, they have so far displayed unprecedented reliability as the majority of the 13 drivers on show opted to rack up the laps via long runs, with times secondary.

After Red Bull's Max Verstappen churned out 168 laps on opening day, Haas' Romain Grosjean led the way on day two with 158 across his eight-hour stint, with his best lap of one minute 18.496secs only good enough for 11th overall.

Article continues under video

Grosjean finished 1.405s adrift of pacesetter Kimi Raikkonen in his Alfa Romeo, with the Finn's 1:17.091s just over a tenth of a second down on the quickest lap on Wednesday from reigning six-time champion Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes.

Grosjean, though, brought his day to a premature end by 40 minutes with a spin that resulted in him hitting the wall backwards at Turn 4.

Raikkonen managed 134 laps, with his best of those set with just 45 minutes of the day's running remaining, albeit on the softest - and the quickest - of the five compounds made available to the teams by tyre supplier Pirelli throughout testing.

Raikkonen also brought out the first red flag of testing overall with 17 minutes remaining, stopping on track leading into Turn 9. As has become customary in testing, the car was taken back to the garage on the back of a flat-bed truck, and under a black tarpaulin.

It is understood that Raikkonen deliberately ran out off fuel, a practice not uncommon in pre-season testing as teams test the limits of all areas of their cars.

Perez, who had been the long-time leader with his 1:17.347s set in the morning on the medium C3 rubber, clocked up 145 laps of his own.

Daniel Ricciardo was third quickest in his Renault, 0.658s behind Raikkonen on the medium compound, but the Australian only managed 41 laps in the morning session before giving way to team-mate Esteban Ocon, who himself completed just ?? laps and was down in 12th, leaving the French manufacturer lacking in mileage compared to nearly all their rivals.

Fourth-quickest Alex Albon did not quite manage team-mate Verstappen's tally in the RB16 but ??? laps still represented a good day's work for the London-born Thai, who was 0.821s behind Raikkonen, and with his lap set on the C2 hard tyre.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was another member of the 100-lap club, completing 147 overall and finishing 1.1s off of Raikkonen's pace, and like Albon, on the C2.

After illness forced Sebastian Vettel to pull out of running on Wednesday, the four-time champion finally stepped behind the wheel of Ferrari's SF1000, taking over in the afternoon session from Charles Leclerc, who was eighth fastest.

Leclerc only managed 49 laps, while Vettel completed 73, posting a 1:18.154s on the C4 softs for sixth overall.

Williams' George Russell split the Ferrari duo as the team enjoyed another solid day of running, in stark contrast to a year ago when it missed the first two and a half days due problems with the build of the car. Russell managed 116 laps, and was 1.175s behind Raikkonen.

Hamilton completed a mammoth stint in the morning session, clocking up 106 laps before making way in the afternoon for team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who propped up the timesheet with a 1:19.307s, and whose day ended with an electrical issue, curtailing his lap count to 77.

McLaren's Lando Norris amassed 137 laps, finishing down in 10th with a time of 1:18.474s on the C2.

Pre-season Testing Results – Thursday 20 February
1 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN 134 Laps 1:17.091 C5
2 Sergio Perez BWT Racing Point 145 Laps +0.256 C3
3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 41 Laps +0.658 C3
4 Alex Albon Aston Martin Red Bull Racing 134 Laps +0.821 C2
5 Pierre Gasly Scuderia AlphaTauri 147 Laps +1.030 C2
6 Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 73 Laps +1.063 C4
7 George Russell ROKiT Williams 116 Laps +1.175 C3
8 Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 49 Laps +1.244 C3
9 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes-AMG Petronas 106 Laps +1.296 C1
10 Lando Norris McLaren 137 Laps +1.383 C3
11 Romain Grosjean Haas 158 Laps +1.405 C3
12 Esteban Ocon Renault 52 Laps +1.466 C2
13 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes-AMG Petronas 77 Laps +2.216 C2

Tyres
C1 (Hardest)C2 (Hard)C3 (Medium)C4 (Soft)C5 (Softest)