Hamilton hots up; McLaren breaks down

Editor 07 Mar 2018 11:46 AM

The lap times are continuing to tumble at the Circuit de Catalunya as Lewis Hamilton becomes the first driver to drop into the 1.18s region.

But first there was news of a driver change at Ferrari, with Kimi Raikkonen feeling under the weather.

#Kimi7 feeling unwell this morning. #Seb5 will drive. #F1Testing

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) March 7, 2018

Fernando Alonso was one of the first drivers to emerge from the garage, looking to atone for a dreadful day on Tuesday for McLaren as they suffered multiple breakdowns.

The Spaniard was the early pace-setter and one of seven drivers who had improved on their pre-season personal bests within the first couple of hours of the morning session.

The others? Ricciardo, Sainz, Grosjean, Ocon, Hartley and Leclerc.

Alonso breaks through the 1:20 barrier with the hypersoft tyres

He goes quickest with a 1:19.856 🙌#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/5LOV6bOjzq

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 7, 2018

Ocon then raised a false alarm after he set the fastest time of testing so far with a 1:19.067 on soft tyres…only for it to be deleted as he exceeed track limits.

Then Hamilton suddenly sparked into life, setting three quick laps on the bounce – a 1:19.125, a 1:18.945 and a 1:18.317 – all on medium tyres. But, like Ocon, the latter time was wiped away after he too exceeded track limits.

Easy does it, @LewisHamilton… The Champ puts in his best time of #F1Testing so far – a 1:18.945s

That’s faster than last year’s #SpanishGP pole time! These 2018 @F1 cars are mighty 👊#DrivenByEachOther #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/6ihpWUWqP7

— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) March 7, 2018

But, clearly, things were going too well for McLaren…

Smoke billowing from the engine bay through the air intake and under the rear bodywork. Acrid smell of burning carbon. Not going to be pretty when they open it up. pic.twitter.com/gIWNcuYtex

— Will Buxton (@wbuxtonofficial) March 7, 2018

After a brief red flag delay, Hamilton switched to the supersoft tyres and found an extra couple of tenths soon after, improving to a 1:18.752.

Hamilton continued to send the lap times tumbling, but a new personal best of 1:18.400 was beaten by Daniel Ricciardo, who lowered the benchmark to 1:18.047, just before the unofficial lunch break.

It was a non-official lunch break for all the teams…

There is no official lunch break today, but at the moment we are not running while we are consuming food.

Make of that what you want. #F1Testing

— Sahara Force India (@ForceIndiaF1) March 7, 2018

Brendon Hartley tested the track limits but he wasn’t the only driver using every available inch of the Circuit de Catalunya.

A lock up for Lance Stroll…

Sebastian Vettel was in action in the morning before handing the SF71H over to Kimi Raikkonen for the afternoon.

Charles Leclerc laid down the laps for Sauber.

Past the 100 lap mark👍 @Charles_Leclerc is getting back the time lost in the #C37 last week! #F1testing pic.twitter.com/gUqZCB8a1W

— Sauber F1 Team (@SauberF1Team) March 7, 2018

Kimi Raikkonen replaced Vettel in the afternoon having been unwell in the morning.