Raikkonen edges Ferrari ahead on day two

2017 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Ferrari were quickest on the second day of testing at the Circuit de Catalunya as Kimi Raikkonen put over 100 laps on the SF70H.

There was little to choose between them and Mercedes at the top of the times sheet on day two. Yesterday’s pace setter Lewis Hamilton, who only drove the W08 in the morning, ended up 0.023s off the Ferrari.

Red Bull enjoyed a more productive day with Max Verstappen at the wheel. He finished the day over a second off the top two.

F1 testing day two in pictures
He was just four thousandths ahead of Kevin Magnussen, who gave Haas some encouragement with the fourth-quickest time. Following his crash yesterday, Magnussen was the busiest driver on the track today.

Valtteri Bottas took over the Mercedes in the afternoon for a race simulation exercise. This was briefly interrupted by a lurid, high-speed spin at turn nine from which he emerged unscathed.

It was another frustrating day for McLaren. Stoffel Vandoorne came to a stop at the pit lane entrance early in the day and has to be pushed to the garage by his mechanics.

As had been the case for Fernando Alonso 24 hours earlier, a complete change of power unit was required. Vandoorne eventually completed 37 laps, just eight more than his team mate had managed.

The only driver beneath him on the times sheets was Williams newcomer Lance Stroll. A high-speed spin into the turn nine gravel trap on his 12th lap as an F1 driver left the FW40 with front wing damage which the team were unable to remedy at the track due to a lack of spares.

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLaps
17Kimi RaikkonenFerrariSF70H1’20.960108
244Lewis HamiltonMercedesW081’20.9830.02366
333Max VerstappenRed BullRB131’22.2001.24089
420Kevin MagnussenHaasVF-171’22.2041.244118
531Esteban OconForce IndiaVJM101’22.5091.54986
626Daniil KvyatToro RossoSTR121’22.9561.99668
777Valtteri BottasMercedesW081’22.9862.026102
830Jolyon PalmerRenaultRS171’24.1393.17953
936Antonio GiovinazziSauberC361’24.6173.65767
102Stoffel VandoorneMcLarenMCL321’25.6004.64040
1118Lance StrollWilliamsFW401’26.0405.08012

2017 F1 season

Browse all 2017 F1 season articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

91 comments on “Raikkonen edges Ferrari ahead on day two”

  1. Oh Mclaren…….facepalm…….I hope things improve….we need them in the top 5……

    1. Best 2 drivers on the grid , yes vandorn is probably better than Alonso after this season but they have a dog a car .

      McLaren are turning into the chicago bears . Every season it looks like it could be their season and poof pre-season shows they blow .

      1. What? “Best 2 drivers on the grid”…should that be the “Best 2 drivers at the back of the grid”?

      2. Thanks for enlightening me on Stoffel being better than Alonso. I’ll make sure and look for more of your informative posts in the future.

        1. That made me lol

      3. How in the world have you decided that Vandoorne is better than Vettel, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Bottas, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Hulkenburg, Perez, Grosjean, Alonso, Massa and Sainz?

        Ocon, Werlein, Palmer, Magnussen, Kvyat, Stroll, Ericsson I’m on the fence about

        1. He is likely better than Guti and Chilton, though.

        2. It’s obviously a well informed decision after looking at Vandoorne put in stellar laps in that super fast Mclaren as shown in this video –

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbQeXx4gHxA

          1. As if we’ve never seen Vettel or Hamilton do that.

  2. I believe you meant 0.023 seconds, and not 0.23

  3. Based only on what I’ve read from those present, and the timesheets, I really think the front three will be very close. Ferrari look the most stable and are setting the fastest times. Pinch of salt of course but still impressive. Mercedes is very fast in short stints but seemingly not great at the longer stints, Bottas in the afternoon especially had some trouble. Red Bull haven’t gone balls out yet on a fast time, but their mid length stints today were very impressive, great speed and consistency. Also more capable of taking turn 9 flat. I believe Red Bull will also have the most parts to come (this is pure conjecture) and I think we might really have a three way fight on our hands.

    Or I could be entirely premature and wrong.

    1. Lol yeah just hard to know right now when they’re not running their full packages nor at full pace yet.

    2. total rubbish. Let’s see at the first race.

      Mercedes are sandbagging. Remember last year when they didn’t post fast times and then just obliterated the field in Australia.

      1. Merc won in Australia 2016 due to a huge Ferrari strategy mess up.

    3. I’d agree with that @hahostolze especially with the big moment for bottas earlier, he was lucky to just clip the wall. Not sure if it caused any big damage ? Haven’t seen a lot of reporting on it which is a bit strange considering it was probably the biggest incident of the day

  4. Honda must improve before the second tests. Otherwise, Alonso might not even come to Australia.

  5. Mercedes are having a mighty preseason again.

    Minor correction:
    “who only drove the W08 in the morning, ended up 0.23s off the Ferrari.”
    Should be 0.023s

  6. Early days yet, but I’m encouraged by the showing from Haas so far. Hoping that maybe we’ll see them solidly in the mid to upper mid-field this year.

    1. The lap count is a rather pleasant sight, if nothing else. :)

  7. Sense another walkover for Mercedes in the pipeline. Hopefully there will be a good battle between the two drivers for the championship.

  8. From what I’ve heard, not only reliability is still an issue with McLaren but when it’s not destroying itself, the engine isn’t showing the expected improvement… which sucks, badly. Still early days, but today was the deadline for engine homologation… if it’s another “Honda GP2 engine”, they are in for another loooong long season ahead.

    1. No homolgation on engine. 4 engines for the year in theory could have 4 completely diffetent engines, no stupid tocken system anymore.

    2. @fer-no65 A little bit of ‘schadenfreude’ from me, just for Ron anyway. I do hope they come on song though just so we can at least see Alonso doing his thing!

      1. so far, I would say that either Honda screwed up again or Ron knows some mean voodoo… ;)

    3. Where did you hear the @fer-no65?

      1. @3dom Albert Fabrega said it live on Canal F1 Latinamerica. He’s a columnist at Motorsport too I think, and he talks about the technical side of F1 in spanish tv as well. Good twitter to follow!

          1. Tonia greuner just tweeted an Auto Motor bud Sport article stated that the Honda engine lacks BOTH reliability and power :-s @fer-no65

          2. *Tobias Greuner. You know what I mean :-s

          3. @3dom :( not good…

    4. It’s already game over for Mclaren Honda this season. The highly capable Mr.Hasegawa has mentioned that the shape of the oil tank is a problem, which will result in a change in the entire packaging of the PU and probably even chassis redesign. The 2nd problem that is being investigated by Honda was about the loss of power, to which they still have no answer. Both of these are major and fundamental problems, to which there is no quick fix.

      So…. not only is their output somewhere around the range of 100hp down on it’s rivals, it also has the worst reliability of any PU on the grid.

      It’s amazing that after throwing 2 seasons away with a flawed philosophy, all they had to do was copy Mercedes’ layout, and somehow they managed to screw that up with such flying colours.

      I think Zak Brown needs to make sure he can secure a Mercedes power unit for next year, and get rid of Honda as soon as possible. Eventually, I think Mclaren should start making their own engines in house… it’s the only logical step for them to take.

      1. @todfod

        For real? the oil tank *shape* is a problem, or rather, PU-chassis integration is a problem, in March?

        Oh lord, they’re a joke.

        1. @faulty, Hasegawa has suggested that the issues may be related to the shape of the oil tank. Some have taken that as an indication there are unexpected issues with sloshing that have arisen as a result of the shape of the oil tank, something which may not have arisen during testing at the factory, which is then resulting in problems with oil scavenging under high load.

          What has then happened is that some parties have assumed that, if the oil tank geometry has to be changed, is that McLaren may then have issues with integrating the engine with the chassis – however, that is somewhat speculative at this point in time.

          1. Still, how do the two teams not communicate so that this type of stuff is sorted earlier into development. Don’t they evaluate their progress at different stages?

          2. If the problem is “sloshing” it should be curable with a set of well designed and tested baffles, that of course assuming the shape of the tank is not totally ridiculous.

          3. I don’t think anyone is assuming here. These were Hasegawa’s exact same words

            http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/128288

      2. Is there a story on this from a reputable outlet?

      3. “Eventually, I think Mclaren should start making their own engines in house… it’s the only logical step for them to take.”

        This. I think you’re absolutely right. In fact, it would have served them much better if they had maintained the Mercedes engine for one or two seasons more whilst developing their own engine. With their road car business going strongly they surely have the capability to invest in an F1 engine which not only would ease the integration with the rest of the car, but would also ensure that it is at all times in accordance with the needs and objectives they have performance-wise.

        Beacause as things are, It just seems that there is this inherent lack of communication between those two sides of the team. It’s like two separate departments without regard for each other whatsoever. And in today’s game that won’t yield any sort of success.

        1. @toiago ago In what world does McLaren have better capabilities to make an engine than Honda?

          1. They build hybrid engines for the hypercar (Mclaren P1), that is already more experience in building hybrid racing engines than Honda.

        2. @toiago, the thing is, at the moment they don’t have the in house capabilities to even produce engines for their road cars. Don’t forget that development of the M838T engine series was sub-contracted out to Ricardo, and even then the engine was derived from the Nissan VRH35L series engine that started out in the R390 GT1 car rather than being an entirely new design.

          Even if they wanted to, I doubt that McLaren really can afford to plough the necessary money, time and resources into an F1 engine project when most of the capital of the company is tied up in expanding their production capacity – after all, Red Bull, an organisation with around ten times the annual turnover of McLaren Automotive, thought about the idea and then promptly backed away when they realised the scale of the resources they would have to commit to such a project.

      4. @todfod @toiago bear in mind, tho, that Honda didn’t know until late last year that the token system was getting scrapped and they were finally allowed to make huge modifications to the geometry of the engine.

        Also, I don’t think McLaren has the knowledge NOR the capabilities to make an F1 engine (never mind a competitive one) just like that. We can say Honda is a failure, but they have the resources to do something, and they are struggling mainly because they arrived so late at the party. They are pushing harder than the others, and that brings them more problems than solutions.

        1. @fer-no65

          Would have to disagree with you on Honda not knowing until late last year.

          I clearly remember that at the end of the 2015 season it was decided that the token system would be scrapped in 2017. By that time, Honda had already been working on their b-spec engine, because they knew that the design philosophy of the 1st PU was flawed.

          They had enough time and preparation, so they cannot be using that same excuse after 3 years in the sport.

  9. Man… I got my fingers crossed to see those two teams that close in Australia

    1. Hopefully your right. Throw in Red Bull and we could have a a great season. But its day 2 of test 1. If its like this on day 4 of test 2 then we can excited. But Merc and Ferrari look pretty reliable which given others struggles is pretty good.

  10. And at least the token system is down for this year too, which might make Mclaren season not as long as 2015! (But much more expensive). I hope they will have a straightforward day tomorrow, as we cannot yet see if they have potential for this years car

  11. I hope so bad Ferrari’s pace is for real and closed the gap to Mercedes! My hopes are based on some comments from journalists present at the track on how (well) the car behaved, plus I think it’s worth mentioning that Ferrari set their times, so far, on the slower tyres. More exactly, yesterday they set theur best time using Mediums and Mercedes using Softs, while today using Softs and Mercedes using SuperSofts. Setting a time almost identical to Mercedes with a slower tyre I think it’s worth mentioning and I hope (again) it’s not just a case of… testing.

    1. @corrado-dub Although I echo your statements, however we will never know until Q3 in Melbourne. Mercedes have always pulled out something extra during Q3. Not only that, we don’t know the fuel loads. Having such similar days back to back tells us one of two things, either Ferrari are for real, or Mercedes is running heavier than Ferrari on the quicker tire.

      1. Just terrible grammar on my part.

      2. @sward28, I would agree that, whilst Ferrari may look competitive at this stage, there is no guarantee that they will deliver on that promise. After all, in 2016 Ferrari also topped the timesheets during the first pre-season test, yet never managed to replicate that sort of performance during the season.

  12. Very impressed by the reliability of both Mercedes and Ferrari, and less so by Renault. Today’s tally is 265 laps for the Mercedes powered cars and 292 for Ferrari. This brings the total so far to:

    1. Mercedes (3 teams) – 559 laps (2602km distance)
    2. Ferrari (3 teams) – 543 laps (2528 km distance)
    3. Renault (3 teams) – 368 laps (1714 km distance)
    4. Honda (1 team) – 69 laps (321 km distance)

    That’s just in 2 days! It would be so exciting if Ferrari and Mercedes are on par during the season!

    1. @simeonoff Don’t forget that Sauber is using an older engine, so that shouldn’t really count towards this year’s aspirations for Ferrari.

      1. @toiago Totally forgot they are running the 2016 spec. I don’t know if any of the data collected by Sauber would be any useful for Ferrari. I guess not.
        I stand corrected then – Ferrari 2017 engine (2 teams) – 405 laps (1885 km distance)

        1. Is the Ferrari ICE the same as last years, anybody know what the changes are?

          Apart from fuel which is obviously the big differentiator nowadays.

          1. Ferrari are running a new ICU. Can’t say exactly what the changes are, but one of the more discussed was a new piston technology. Basically the piston will have a 3D printed honeycomb layer of aluminum to allow for better cooling, enhancing reliability, and from there performance. I don’t think they will share exact details regarding this, but it must be patented.

          2. @simeonoff, I think you will find that it is Mahle that owns the patent for that concept, having worked on the idea of additive 3D printing for some time now, so at least some of the details are going to be in the public domain as a result.

        2. Doesn’t sounds fair at all, this is not a competition of number of laps. For example all 3 Renault has been running faultlessly all day today, but have decided not to do as many lap as Ferrari or Mercedes, I presume they have their reasons but clearly they all seems satisfied with Renault’s Engine.

          Same for Mercedes, they could have even more lap without FI exhaust issue, whereas Ferrari 2016 had to be replaced today (and we know its a reliable engine). So honestly I think at this stage it’s kind of irrelevant, my conclusion is Renault/Mercedes/Ferrari are running fine (PU wise) whereas Honda seems to be in trouble.

          1. @pyon I am just showing raw data. Can’t say it’s unfair, just statistics.

          2. I am not contesting the data at all, just the statement you made below using the raw data as an argument. Renault’s (PU) reliability has faultless so far in my opinion.

            “Very impressed by the reliability of both Mercedes and Ferrari, and less so by Renault”

          3. @pyon But that’s not entirely true, is it? While it’s true that no Renault ICE has been replaced, Red Bull were the first team to halt due to an engine sensor issue, followed by a battery issue (part of the unit).

          4. I completely stick to my point and I do believe this is completely true. This kind of issues are clearly expected by me at this stage of the testing. Would you say that FI exhaust issues make current Mercedes unreliable? Or would you say that on the back of Sauber’s issue that Ferrari 2016 is not a reliable engine? Let’s call a cat a cat, one sensor and a minor battery issue doesn’t make a PU unreliable, it may be, but at this stage nothing suggest it.

            @simeonoff

          5. @pyon You convinced me :) It may not be the reliability I am impressed by then, but rather the show of raw milage on said engine, which I correlate (wrongly) with reliability. I hope Renault provides this year, I am really impressed by the Toro Rosso chassis and really wish they get a strong PU. Just want to see more of the Renault teams on track to get a strong reaffirmation of Renault’s promises they made during the winter.

          6. Same here, if Renault deliver what they have promised RB should be able to fairly fight Ferrari and Mercedes, and it will be great to see TR with a decent unit. However let see how much progress Ferrari/Mercedes have made on their engine, because at this stage we are yet to see the performance of any engine. To me it seems everyone is focused on either reliability or chassis/tyre testing at the moment.

  13. Alonso should have jumped ship a longggg time ago, its a joke that in their 3rd season honda aren’t even on top of their reliability never mind performance

    1. ALO has about 33.000.000 € reasons not to care about being on the back of the grid. Not that he needs it but when there’s nothing else available, take the cheque and retire next year I guess.

  14. It should be noted that Raikkonen posted his time on the soft tyre, whereas Hamilton’s time was on the supersoft tyre. For what it’s worth.

    1. Times don’t really matter yet. They are still off by at least 1.5-2 seconds of the target.

  15. Whilst only the second day of testing, the Ferrari does apprear to be impressing the most. Of course we don’t know fuel loads but according to analysts/eye witnesses at the track the SF70H looks responsive and stable as well as quick and thus far reliable. We all know what happened after Ferrari’s ultimately-misleading 2016 pre-season performance, but I get the feeling this season will be their most competitive for a while.

    Mercedes will most likely be carrying heavier fuel loads and Bottas was pushing the limits at various points during that race-sim, but it does appear to be more of a handful than the prancing horse. Still, I’d have my money on them for the Constructor’s crown, but they’re gonna have to work a hell of a lot harder for it this time round.

    I’m most intriuged by Red Bull and what they have up their sleeves. The aero package they’ve tested thus far has been quite minimalist compared to their rivals thus far, and so I’d expect them to show their straight-flush at the final test or even Melbourne. Just a shame for them that that Renault engine is gonna hold them back (sorry to say).

    As for McLaren-Honda… business as usual.

    1. Time sheets aside, there are strong indications that Ferrari are much better than last year. I, too, was surprised by the technical analysts by the track, who said the car handles the best so far, albeit I am sure the other teams (read Mercs) will be able to figure out the balance to quickly close the door. Can’t wait for Melbourne. We can only hope for more competition this year.

      1. To me the critical factor to decide if Ferrari can challenge for the title or not is of they have a “quali” mode engine that is on par with Mercedes. Same for RB and the Renault engine, until they got a proper quali mode they will only be able to be opportunist.

        In my opinion Mercedes starting 1/2 with clean air ahead was a massive help in their reign so far.

        1. True. This showed on many occasions when they were stuck behind another car in dirty air. Somehow the Mercs can always pull a second out of their sleeves during Q3. Let’s hope the teams have found ways to counter this.

        2. @pyon The shift in regs towards draggier cars should negate a good deal of Mercedes’ engine advantage, so I’d expect the front of the field to close up in one-lap pace (unless Mercedes have outdone Ferrari and RB in the aero department), so perhaps not as many 1/2 starts as they’d like!

          1. @ninjenius Should the draggier cars not actually benefit Mercedes instead? In the sense that only the cars with the more powerful engines can overcome the drag?

  16. Bummed about Hulk. Renault are in for another year of hurt while their escapee(s) seems to have a good machine to fight TR and maybe even FI.

    1. I think it’s a little too early to gauge Renault’s performance. They’ve been sorting out teething issues with their new PU over the past few days, so their lap times aren’t necessarily representative of their true pace. I’m pretty sure that as the year goes on Renault will develop their car better than Haas.

      I’m actually going to go a little bold in my prediction and say they will seal P5 in the constructors.

      1. +1 we are yet to see what this PU can (or cannot) do. They started with a brand new architecture and need to be cautious before adding performance. RB seems confident which is a very good sign, but we will see at Melbourne really and in the European season when they claim to add more perf to it.

  17. Oh dear. Looks like McLaren have screwed up again. What’s the price on Jenson being back in the car before the end of the season after Fernando walks away?

    Stranger things have happened.

  18. Amazes me that Mercedes are still so far ahead in mileage. They’ve been doing this for years now and it’s like no other team is even trying in comparison. They must have a supremely regimented schedule. Masterful management.

    1. I think alternating drivers between morning/afternoon sessions works really well. Each driver pushes to the best of their abilities, and if the car is reliable then that creates great opportunity for doing many laps on end. None of that would be possible, though, without strong organizational, managerial and engineering skills.

    2. I think the only reason they can do it is because they switch drivers at lunch. Honestly it might be too much to ask one driver to do that many laps. I think doing more than one and a half race distances, like Raikkonen did, is already very physically challenging. Probably need a day off after that..

  19. So I have a question. Is this the car Vettel drove yesterday or is it a different chassis? In other words, how many cars do the teams bring for testing?

    1. Same car, only one.

  20. I wouldn’t get too excited just yet with Ferrari. Strong pace nonetheless

  21. No mention of tire compounds used? No compounds listed on the time sheet? I mean we don’t know the relative time differences between compounds with Pirelli’s newest generation of tires, but we know it generally makes a huge difference, so not including them means this timing sheet is utterly useless.

    1. MG421982 (@)
      1st March 2017, 6:27

      I mentioned the tyre compounds for both days.

      DAY 1: Mercedes = Softs, Ferrari = Mediums
      DAY 2: Mercedes = SuperSofts, Ferrari = Softs

      1. MG421982 (@)
        1st March 2017, 6:30

        …compounds used for the best lap!

      2. I’m talking about the article and timesheet. It’s absurd that it’s not on the timesheet. It’s useless without compounds listed.

  22. Don’t you guys think that Mercedes are playing tricks by having two drivers rotating? Anyway, it’s true that other teams couldn’t afford such mileages as mechanic failures may occur. Just hope that Mercedes will be challenged by at lest two teams. Otherwise, it’s another boring season.

Comments are closed.