Valtteri Bottas topped the time sheets again with an impressive 1:19.310, faster than he set last week and enough to secure pole at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya every year since 2007.
Bottas was in the car for the morning session, and completed a number of shorter runs to evaluate new car parts. In total he ran 70 laps in the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team W08.
“It was another good half-day in the car for me,” he said. “We managed to complete our programme as planned and I have to say that I felt much better in the car today with the changes we’ve made.
“We’re definitely making good progress as a team and I’m feeling more and more comfortable in the car every time I go out on track.
“We were focusing on shorter runs today. In the first part of the morning we did lots of aero tests to evaluate some upgrades and everything seems to be going in a positive direction. There’s still plenty of work to do so we need to maximise the next two days of testing.”
Despite ending the day a tenth ahead of second placed Felipe Massa, the Finn played down the significance of the feat and instead stressed the importance of actual race performance.
“Fastest laps don’t matter in testing,” he added. “What matters is where you are when you get to Melbourne. I’m just pleased we managed to complete the full programme.
“I learned so much from today’s running. Now I’m just concentrating on tomorrow.”
