Ferrari fastest in snow-hit F1 test

Sebastian Vettel has left Ferrari on top at the end of Formula 1’s second day of pre-season testing in Barcelona despite snow falling on the circuit late in the day.

Cool conditions from the opening day were expected to get even chillier for Tuesday, with 11 drivers braving the conditions.

Vettel’s time was 1.5 seconds faster than that set by Daniel Ricciardo on Monday, though at this stage reliability rather than outright pace remains the focus for teams.

“The important thing today wasn’t the lap time, but the fact that, in these conditions, we managed to cover almost a hundred laps without encountering any reliability problems,” said Vettel.

“From an operational point of view, everything went smoothly and I’d say the car is working.

“But today’s conditions are not the ones in which you’d normally run an F1 car: today it even snowed and with air temperature around three to four degrees and the track at eight to nine, everyone struggled to get the tyres up to temperature.”

The Ferrari driver managed 98 laps, the most of any driver over the course of the day, with second fastest Valtteri Bottas next best with 94 laps.

Bottas was the only driver on duty for Mercedes, despite Lewis Hamilton having originally been scheduled to step into the car.

“It was very cold on track today; I don’t think I’ve ever driven in such cold conditions before in Formula 1,” said the Finn.

“Testing is always difficult in these temperatures, the tyres are just not made for these conditions.

“But we made the most out of the day. In the morning, we focused on aero work with different aero rakes on the car, running various tests.

“In the afternoon, I was doing long runs and we also worked on the set-up.”

Elsewhere Williams enjoyed a solid day, with both Sergey Sirotkin and development driver Robert Kubica on duty, racking up a tally of 100 laps between the pair.

For a time, Stoffel Vandoorne topped the time sheets for McLaren, but a broken exhaust clip led to an electrical problem which saw his running limited to just 37 laps.

At Red Bull, a troublesome fuel pump meant Max Verstappen could manage just three laps in the morning session, though was able to spend more time on track later in the day.

Force India recovered from problems on the opening day to bank 79 laps.

Snow late in the day ended running early, while heavy rain on Wednesday is further expected to compromise teams’ programs.

The opening four-day test concludes on Thursday, with rain once again forecast.

RESULT: Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing, Day 2