Bottas “found some answers” for Mercedes as Hamilton opts out

Valtteri Bottas says he “found some answers” during the second day of 2018 Formula 1 pre-season testing after being handed a full day of track running as Lewis Hamilton chose not to drive in the afternoon session.

The Finnish driver had been set to hand over to Hamilton after lunch but the reigning F1 world champion elected to “sacrifice” his track time to allow Bottas to continue having found a working rhythm in the challenging cold conditions at Circuit de Catalunya.

Bottas clocked an impressive 94 laps for Mercedes despite the cold temperatures a coating of snow in the final two hours of track action while taking second overall on the timesheet with a best lap of 1m 19.976s.

The Finnish driver gave a nod to Hamilton as he says he enjoyed useful track time regardless of the tricky conditions and was content with the development progress produced with the W09.

“We made the most out of the day,” Bottas said. “In the morning, we focused on aero work with different aero rakes on the car, running various tests. In the afternoon, I was doing long runs and we also worked on the set-up.

“It was quite tricky in these temperatures, but we managed to get some work done and found some answers to our testing items.

“It was very cold on track today; I don't think I've ever driven in such cold conditions before in Formula 1. Testing is always difficult in these temperatures, the tyres are just not made for these conditions.

Hamilton says it was his decision to not test for Mercedes today having seen Bottas impress during the morning session and feels the choice was validated by the progress enjoyed by his team.

“It made sense to keep Valtteri in the car this afternoon,” Hamilton said. “Having run in the morning, he was comfortable in the car already and we would have lost about an hour of running time with the driver switch.

“With no real understanding of whether good weather was coming or not, I took the decision to sacrifice that time in order for the team to gain better understanding of the car by going through the run plan.”