Bottas fastest as F1 2017 hits five-second target

BARCELONA, Spain -- Formula One's new regulations are well on their way to achieving the sport's stated aim of making the cars five seconds faster than they were in 2015.On just the third day of this year's opening test, Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas set...

Bottas fastest as F1 2017 hits five-second target

BARCELONA, Spain -- Formula One's new regulations are well on their way to achieving the sport's stated aim of making the cars five seconds faster than they were in 2015.

On just the third day of this year's opening test, Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas set a lap time of 1:19.705 to go 4.976s faster than the pole position time at the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix. When the new regulations were announced one year ago, the target was to make the car's five seconds faster than the previous season around the Circuit de Catalunya, which, on today's evidence, is easily achievable.

The lap was set during the morning session on Pirelli's ultra-soft tyres -- the softest compound in the range -- after Bottas had also set quick laps on the softs and super-softs. Sebastian Vettel came closest later in the morning with a 1:19.952 on soft tyres in his Ferrari, which was 0.155s quicker than Bottas' time on the same compound.

Lewis Hamilton took over driving duties at Mercedes in the afternoon session, but focused more on long runs. He started a race simulation on his 17th lap in the car, but appeared to abandon it following two red flags in the afternoon to focus on long runs on the soft tyres.

There were five red flags during the day, three of which were for spins. Jolyon Palmer was the first to make a mistake at Turn 3, beaching his Renault in the gravel while conducting an aero test. After losing much of Tuesday's running to a broken front wing, Stroll spun again right at the end of the morning session, bringing the recovery truck into action for the second time.

One hour into the afternoon session, Carlos Sainz stopped on track in his Toro Rosso and just three minutes after the session got started again, Stroll spun on the exit of Turn 5, pirouetted across the track and hit the wall. The contact destroyed the nose and front-left suspension, bringing an end to the 18-year-old rookie's day after 98 laps. The final red flag came in the last ten minutes of the afternoon session when Vettel's Ferrari stopped on track on its 139th lap, which may well have been a fuel run-out test.

Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest in the Red Bull after clocking up 70 laps, with a time 1.448s off Bottas's best effort. Palmer recovered from his early spin to set the fourth fastest time, a further 0.243s off Ricciardo, before handing the Renault over to Nico Hulkenberg in the afternoon, who set the fifth fastest time. Marcus Ericsson had a productive day in the Sauber with a total of 126 laps -- the most the C36 has completed in a single day this week -- and the sixth fastest time. Romain Grosjean was eighth fastest on his first day back this season, completing 56 laps in the new Haas VF17.

Fernando Alonso completed 72 laps on a slightly better day for McLaren-Honda. With a new oil tank fitted to the car to solve Monday's problem and an investigation into Tuesday's mechanical problem due to produce results on Thursday, Honda played down the severity of the week's problems and promised more improvements for the second week of testing.

The two Toro Rosso drivers and Force India reserve Alfonso Celis occupied the bottom three places with lap times roughly four seconds off the pace. Sainz and Daniil Kvyat split their time in the car while Celis had the Force India to himself for 71 laps.

The fourth and final day of the test will see the morning dedicated to wet weather running, with the circuit set to be artificially soaked overnight and again ahead of the green flag at 09:00 local time. The plan is to have full-wet conditions when the session gets underway before allowing the track to dry through intermediate conditions and eventually back to slicks.

Times at close:

1. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - 1:19.705 - 75 laps (morning)
2. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:19.952 - 139 laps
3. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:21.153 - 70 laps
4. Jolyon Palmer - Renault - 1:21.396 - 51 laps
5. Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - 1:21.791 - 42 laps
6. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber - 1:21.824 - 126 laps
7. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:22.090 - 95 laps (afternoon)
8. Romain Grosjean - Haas - 1:22.118 - 56 laps
9. Lance Stroll - Williams - 1:22.351 - 98 laps
10. Fernando Alonso - McLaren - 1:22.598 - 72 laps
11. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso - 1:23.540 - 32 laps
12. Alfonso Celis - Force India - 1:23.568 -71 laps
13. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso - 1:23.952 - 31 laps

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