Strong start for team Ferrari
FERRARI made a strong start to the first day of Formula One testing yesterday with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel top of the timesheets at lunchtime with 72 laps completed.
The Italian team won six of 21 races last year, finishing overall runners-up, and are hoping the new SF90 car can end Mercedes’ five-year stranglehold on both championships.
Vettel’s fastest lap of one minute 18.161 seconds, on a sunny morning at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya, was already quicker than anything set during the weather-hit first four-day test of 2018.
The German was also nearly two seconds faster than the best of the rest.
Racing Point’s Mexican Sergio Perez was next on the timesheets, with a 1.19.944, on a day when mileage mattered more than outright speed as teams get to grips with their new cars for the first time and focus on getting in plenty of laps. Reigning champions Mercedes, completed the second most laps – three fewer than Ferrari – with Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg doing 65. Former champions McLaren also made a solid start. |