Kimi Raikkonen tops second day of Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona

Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen led the way during the second day of the opening test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and edged out Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.

During an eventful day, we have seen various incidents and problems occurring up and down the grid.

Following a handful of glitches upon his first day of running in the Haas VF-17, Kevin Magnussen enjoyed more a more fruitful time, racking up over 118 laps, the most for a single driver which is an impressive achievement and foundation for both Magnussen and Haas to build on for the rest of the week.

Renault's Jolyon Palmer endured a frustrating morning as the Enstone team fitted new parts to his RS.17, meaning he only took to the circuit a few minutes before the lunch break. Palmer was able to rack up over a half century of laps before the end of session.
However, Sauber's Antonio Giovinazzi's running was limited during the morning session as Sauber had to change the 2016-specification power unit in his C36-Ferrari.

New F1 rookie and Williams driver Lance Stroll was briefly the pacesetter in the first hour but he threw his Williams FW40 off the road exiting Turn 9 and skated through the gravel at high speed, before coming to a halt.

Stroll was able to recover to the pits, but his car had sustained damage to the winglets, and with no spare parts Williams was forced to abandon running for the day, after just 12 laps.
But the main focus point was more strife for the beleaguered McLaren-Honda outfit,
following restricted running on Monday. F1 rookie Stoffel Vandoorne rolled back into the pit lane during the opening minutes and needed to be pushed back to the garage, though was soon able to return to action.

However, after around 20 laps, Honda was forced to change the power unit in his MCL32, meaning he returned for only the final 90 minutes of action.

Force India's Esteban Ocon stopped on track due to a suspected mechanical issue shortly before the lunch break, having missed the opening two hours of running, following yesterday's exhaust problem.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton had been quickest during the morning session, clocking the benchmark time on Soft tyres, before he improved further when Super Softs were bolted to his Mercedes W08.

With Hamilton's new team mate Valtteri Bottas conducting the first race simulation of pre-season testing, including live pit stops; though his spell was not without drama, as he lost control of the car through Turn 9, brushing the inside barriers.

Bottas was able to continue his race simulation, but came in for a fresh set of tyres as a precaution and carried on with the session.

But it was Kimi Räikkönen who was fastest on the second day of the first F1 pre-season test with a lap time of 1:20.960 and completed 108 laps. Räikkönen's time, which was over a second faster than last year's Spanish Grand Prix pole lap, came on the Soft tyres; demonstrating the gains made under the revised Formula 1 regulations.

Räikkönen finished ahead of Lewis Hamilton in second place and ahead of Max Verstappen who jumped into Red Bull's RB13 for the first time and finished in third place with 89 laps under his belt.

Kevin Magnussen finished in fourth place ahead of Esteban Ocon in fifth place, Daniil Kvyat in sixth place and Valtteri Bottas in seventh place.

As we head further down the grid, Jolyon Palmer finished the session in eighth place ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in ninth place (who was substituting for the injured Pascal Wehrlein), Stoffel Vandoorne in tenth place and Lance Stroll in eleventh place.

Day Two Timesheet

1) Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:20.960, 108 laps,
2) Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, 1:20.983, 66 laps
3) Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:22.200, 50 laps
4) Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 1:22.204, 119 laps
5) Esteban Ocon, Force India, 1:22.509, 86 laps,
6) Danill Kvyat, Toro Rosso, 1:22.956, 68 laps
7) Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, 1:22.986, 102 laps
8) Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:24.139, 53 laps
9) Antonio Giovinanzzi, Sauber, 1:24.617, 67 laps,
10) Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:25.600, 40 laps
11) Lance Stroll, Williams, 1:26.040, 12 laps,

Keep your eyes peeled at Driving For Pleasure as we will be covering all the days of the pre-season F1 test at Barcelona with our daily reports.

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa