Barcelona Testing: Massa fastest as second test gets underway

Williams and Felipe Massa ended the opening day of the second Formula 1 test fastest, completing 168 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 

The Brazilian driver clocked a quickest time of 1:19.726s in the morning session and this was to remain unbeaten throughout the rest of the day, with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo coming closet to matching the FW40, with his best time in the RB13 being a 1:19.900s, 0.174s down on the benchmark. 

Much of the opening day of the final test was spent on long-runs, with Massa, Sebastian Vettel, and Esteban Ocon's Force India all doing over 100 laps. 

Vettel was third quickest, ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, whose running in the morning was limited to only 49 laps, after he damaged the floor of the W08, before he handed over to Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon. 

In the afternoon, Vettel continued Ferrari's strong start to testing, with a time of 1:19.906s being set on the Soft compound Pirelli's. 

Mercedes on the back foot

The expectation was that Mercedes would continue to set the pace in the second test, and being consistent and reliable. However, after an electrical issue on the final day of the first test curtailed Hmailton's runinng, the floor damage was an unwelcome distraction for the team. 

Despite Bottas racking up a further 86 laps in the afternoon, Hamilton, perhaps to take the pressure of the German outfit and place it on their Italian rivals, said that: "I think Ferrari must be the favourites. They have been doing such a great job at the moment."

Elsewhere, Jolyon Palmer was forced to miss most the morning running, afrer Renault changed his Power Unit, before team-mate Nico Hulkenberg completed a further 58 laps in the afternoon for the team, but he ground to a halt minutes before the chequered flag. 

Haas had another strong day's running, with Kevin Magnussen completing 81 laps, as the field began to experiment with the Softer rubber more, aat least in the morining session, before their attention switched in the afternoon. 

More McLaren misery

Yet again McLaren-Honda had a Power Unit issue. An electrical issue was detected which limited Stoffel Vandoorne's running in the morning. After the third PU change of pre-season, the Belgian completed a total of 80 laps and was 10th quickest. 

Racing Director Eric Boullier acknowledged that relations with Honda have become "strained", but confirmed McLaren's commitment to the project with Honda. Fernando Alonso is the in the car tomorrow, and a fourth PU change in just six days of running won't go down well. 

Danill Kvyat completed 83 laps for Toro Rosso, as the Italian team look to add more laps to the STR12, having only completed 186 in the first test. 

Meanwhile, Pascal Wehrlein got his first taste of the new 2017 cars, having been forced to sit-out the entire first test, owing to an injury suffered in the Race of Champions crash he had in January. 

The German completed 47 laps for new team Sauber, and placed 11th, one place ahead of team-mate Marcus Ericsson.