Mercedes running Mazepin fastest on final test day in Barcelona

Published on 15 May 2019 by Mike Motilall

Formula 2-driver Nikita Mazepin topped the leaderboard on the second and final day of in-season testing on Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The Russian, who was allowed to make his test début at Mercedes, did a 1:15.775 on the C5-tyres, staying ahead of Toro Rosso-driver Alexander Albon by almost more than a second. With several minutes remaining, the latter halted trackside, causing the afternoon session to end prematurely. Mazepin was also the most productive driver with 128 laps to his name. Ferrari as a team lapped the track the most, 247 times, but Scuderia, just like Racing Point, also brought along an extra car in order to do some tyre testing for Pirelli.

After the morning session, Kevin Magnussen was the man to beat. His 1:18.101 was done on the C3-compound tyres. This was however blown out of the water in the afternoon by some six drivers.

At Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, Dan Ticktum was once again called to action, just like for the Bahrain test. The Briton, however, didn’t have a flawless day. He came to a standstill during the closing stages of the morning session at Turn ten. Ticktum eventually drove 79 laps with a 1:19.458 being his fastest lap time.

Apart from Ticktum and Albon coming to a standstill, we also saw Nicholas Latifi (Williams), Sergio Sette Camara (McLaren) and Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso) run into problems. Latifi parked his Williams towards the end of the morning session at the end of the pit lane. In the afternoon, Sette Camara halted on track due to a technical issue. As a consequence the Brazilian only managed to pull out some nineteen laps.

Compared to yesterday, there were some handovers at some of the teams. Antonio Fuoco saw some action at Ferrari today, Jack Aitken was handed the wheel on behalf of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen traded seats with Romain Grosjean at Haas. Simulator driver Oliver Turvey drove the McLaren in the morning, before handing controls over to Sergio Sette Camara. We also saw some regulars in action: Lance Stroll (Racing Point), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) and Alexander Albon (Toro Rosso).

Result day two – in-season testing Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya:

Pos 	Driver 	               Car 	        Time 	     Gap 	Laps
1 	Nikita Mazepin 	       Mercedes         1:15.775 	  	128
2 	Alexander Albon        Toro Rosso       1:17.079     1.304s 	109
3 	Antonio Fuoco 	       Ferrari 	        1:17.284     1.509s 	120
4 	Charles Leclerc        Ferrari 	        1:17.349     1.574s 	127
5 	Kimi Raikkonen 	       Alfa Romeo       1:17.393     1.618s 	110
6 	Jack Aitken 	       Renault 	        1:17.621     1.846s 	75
7 	Kevin Magnussen        Haas 	        1:18.101     2.326s 	106
8 	Nick Yelloly 	       Racing Point     1:18.212     2.437s 	83
9 	Nicholas Latifi        Williams         1:18.573     2.798s 	88
10 	Dan Ticktum 	       Red Bull         1:19.458     3.683s 	79
11 	Oliver Turvey 	       McLaren 	        1:20.712     4.937s 	52
12 	Lance Stroll 	       Racing Point 	1:20.745     4.970s 	119
13 	Sergio Sette Camara    McLaren 	        1:21.565     5.790s 	19