Sebastian Vettel comments and impressions after Day 1 of the second Barcelona test. Seb led a closely-matched field on the opening day of the second pre-season test.

171 laps of the Catalunya Circuit totals 796 kilometres. That is the distance Sebastian Vettel reeled off in the SF71H on this the first day of the second and final pre-season test session. This time, the weather behaved itself with air temperature reaching 15 degrees and the track hitting 26. Only wind in the afternoon affected the session. Warm and sunny conditions prevailed throughout the two four-hour sessions in Spain, following last week’s inclement weather, allowing teams to rack up substantial mileage in representative conditions.

Scuderia Ferrari set to work on the dot of 9, the car doing some laps fitted with sensors to acquire data linked to the aerodynamics. After that came some relatively long runs, switching between the Soft and Medium compound tyres. It was on the latter that Seb set his fastest time in 1’20”396, on his 66th lap.

“It was a good day’s work” – Sebastian Vettel said at the end of the session, as reported by Scuderia Ferrari’s official website – “We managed to get through our programme, even if the conditions weren’t always ideal, because of the wind.” – the German driver concluded.

Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull) placed second and third, on Soft and Medium tyres respectively, as their best laps also came in the morning.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, testing continues with Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen at the wheel of the SF71H car.