Raikkonen and Ferrari head second day of 2017 testing

Kimi Raikkonen’s first day at the wheel of Ferrari’s new SF70H could not have gone much better. The Finn topped the timesheets in testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday - edging Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton by 0.023s - and completed well over 100 laps of the Spanish track.

Raikkonen’s best time - a 1m 20.960s on soft tyres - sliced almost another second off Hamilton’s Monday benchmark, also set on Pirelli’s yellow-marked rubber.

Mercedes were also far from unhappy with their day’s work. With Hamilton again splitting driving duties with new team mate Valtteri Bottas, they completed 168 laps between them. Bottas even ran a full-race simulation in the afternoon, surviving a high-speed brush with Barcelona’s barriers along the way as he took seventh place.

After technical issues stymied Daniel Ricciardo’s first day in Red Bull’s RB13 on Monday, team mate Max Verstappen had a smoother ride of things, the Dutchman putting 89 laps on the new Renault-powered machine as he set the day’s third fastest time, albeit more than a second down on the leaders.

There was another strong showing from Haas and Kevin Magnussen in the VF-17, which achieved a highly impressive 118 laps as well as very respectable fourth place, all but matching Verstappen’s time. Watching on was team owner Gene Haas, having arrived fresh from seeing his NASCAR squad take Daytona 500 glory.

Esteban Ocon made his first track appearance as a Force India race driver. Technical problems stopped the Frenchman out on circuit in the morning, but in the afternoon he displayed excellent pace in the Mercedes-powered VJM10 as he went fifth quickest overall, just ahead of Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.

Renault’s Jolyon Palmer managed just a single installation lap in the morning session, but the Briton recovered to rack up the mileage on the new R.S.17 in the afternoon. The result was a lap total of 53 and eighth place on the timesheet.

At Sauber, Ferrari third driver Antonio Giovinazzi made his official F1 test debut, standing in for the injured Pascal Wehrlein. It was not the best of starts for the young Italian, his C36 machine requiring an early power unit change. Matters improved in the afternoon, however, and he racked up 67 laps en route to ninth place.

It was another troubled session for McLaren, with further technical woes forcing the team to make their second Honda power unit change in as many days. It meant Stoffel Vandoorne’s first outing in the MCL32 totalled 40 laps, with the Belgian 10th in the times.

Finally, Williams were forced to abandon their programme at lunchtime, after what had looked to be a minor spin into the gravel for rookie Lance Stroll turned out to have caused significant damage to his car. The Canadian was last in the times at the day’s end, with just 12 laps on the board.

For a look back on the day’s events as they happened, click here.