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Sebastian Vettel was back on top of the time sheets for Ferrari on the third day of the second set of testing days in Barcelona. Vettel smashed the unofficial lap record of catalunya, which had stood for nearly a decade until yesterday when Daniel Ricciardo broke Felipe Massa's old record.
Vettel though shaved nearly a second off of the Ricciardo's benchmark from yesterday of 1:18.047 to set a highly impressive time of 1:17.182. Vettel also managed to run for a huge 188 laps without problems, with Ferrari showing true intent to return this season with renewed focus on winning the championship.
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Kevin Magnussen in the Haas also managed to have another highly impressive day for the American team, as he set a 1:18.360 to be the third quickest driver of testing so far, only slower than Vettel and Ricciardo's lap times. what makes this even more impressive is that he was the only driver in today's top 7 to set his lap on super soft tyres, with everyone else on hyper softs, showing just how good this Haas could be.
Toro Rosso also continued their highly impressive run of testing, running without any problems yet again with their new Honda engine and setting a hugely impressive lap time of 1:18.363 to sit third on the day, showing that perhaps Honda have solved their woes from their McLaren days in terms of both performance and reliability.
Former Honda partners, McLaren, however had a rare good day in testing managing to get valuable mileage today with Stoffel Vandoorne, setting 151 laps, which is the most that the team have set in any testing day in the V6 turbo era of F1, and managing a lap to go a respectable 6th place today amongst their midfield rivals.
Mercedes, the suspected class of the field again this year, had a somewhat anonymous day in terms of the time sheets, perhaps owing to their decision to run mainly on the medium tyres once again, with both their drivers sitting some way down the order comparatively in 8th and 9th, but are surely hiding their true pace until Melbourne in a couple of weeks time.
Renault had another good day in testing, sitting fourth and fifth in the time sheets, with their drivers again sitting less than a tenth away from each other in the time sheets, again showing how close Hulkenberg and Sainz are in terms of performance, and their status as a dark horse contender for this season.
Sauber seem to have continued their attempt to rejoin the midfield this season, with their new partnership with Alfa romeo, and improving their standing with Ferrari to gain updated engines, and Ericsson's lap time to sit 7th on the board and another day where the team set over 100 laps will surely be reason to be pleased.
Red Bull had a somewhat quiet day today compared to yesterdays headline grabbing time of Daniel Ricciardo, with Max Verstappen taking over duties today and sitting in 12th place on the time sheets, ahead of only the Williams of Lance Stroll, but with 187 laps under his belt will surely not be bothered by his lack of headline pace with the knowledge of his teammates lap yesterday.
Force India and Williams continued their trend of sitting near the bottom of the time sheets, which they have done consistently throughout testing so far, which will surely be a worrying trend for the two teams after both teams relatively high performance last season compared to where they have sat thus far, and will be looking to change this trend come Melbourne.
Sam Gale
Circuit de Catalunya - 08 March 2018
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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