Valtteri Bottas completed another reliable morning of testing on Wednesday, and ended the day with the fastest time of the week so far, although it was a close run thing with Sebastian Vettel breathing down his neck.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer completed 75 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya before he handed the W08 over to team-mate Lewis Hamilton, and set a time of 1:19.705 on the Ultrasoft tyre, but Vettel was only 0.247 seconds down on the Soft tyre for Scuderia Ferrari.
Bottas admitted his third time in the car was far easier without the wind playing havoc so much, and he felt it was a good session of data collection as he continues to adjust to life in his new team.
“I think it was another good session,” Bottas said. “We completed lots of mileage and the entire programme that we’d planned to do – including some long and short runs, collecting information on the different tyre compounds.
“We did some aero work to start with in the morning when the conditions were cold, then moved onto testing different settings on the car. It was a pretty straightforward day again, so I think everyone has done a great job so far. The car is running well and it’s feeling better and better.
“It was definitely easier today without the windy conditions and I was able to experience the new car a bit more. One more day of testing left this week, with the wet running on Thursday, so I’m looking forward to getting more laps in tomorrow.”
