Formula 1 2018 Pre Season Test 2 Day 1

USPA NEWS - The Mercedes-AMG F1 W09 EQ Power+ completes 177 laps in improved weather conditions

Date: Tuesday 6 March 2018

Drivers: Valtteri Bottas (AM), Lewis Hamilton (PM)

Circuit: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Circuit Length: 4.655 km

Laps Completed: Valtteri 86, Lewis 91, Total 177

Distance Covered: Valtteri 400 km, Lewis 424 km, Total 824 km

Best Lap Time: Valtteri 1:20.596, Lewis 1:20.808

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport kicked off the second week of pre-season testing in Barcelona with a productive day´s work. In considerably improved weather conditions, the F1 W09 EQ Power+ ran for a total of 824 kilometres, with Valtteri and Lewis both completing similar mileages.

Valtteri ran through a series of fundamental set-up changes on the day, as the team worked to understand how the tyre compounds react to these changes

Lewis worked on a number of recovery strategies for potential sensor failures and tried out aerodynamic bodywork parts for the upcoming season

Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 1,853 km

Valtteri Bottas:

The conditions today were much better than last week and we´re all really happy about that. We got lots of valuable data today. This morning we focused on medium to long runs, trying different mechanical setups of the car.

In these weather conditions we start to really work the tyres and we had a few issues to manage. So we had a few more challenges with the tyres than we had last week, but at least now they can warm up.

We keep discovering more about the new car, learning how it reacts to different settings. We did more than 80 laps ““ so more than a race distance, a really good mileage. The car was very reliable, I really enjoyed being back in the car and I´m looking forward to continuing tomorrow.

Lewis Hamilton:

It´s been a good day. We´ve got through everything we needed and put good mileage on the car ““ it´s been productive.

The biggest challenge we faced today was to get the tyres working properly on this new track surface. The medium tyre was difficult to get working; the soft tyre is better for warm-up, but suffered with degradation. But we are learning all the time.

Overall it´s been a good start to the second test although there is not a whole lot to say at this moment. We have not worked too much on fine-tuning the set-up as we´re mostly still gathering information. In the next couple of days, once we get into the long-runs and some shorter qualifying-style runs, we will get a better idea of where the car is.