Bottas leads second morning of Barcelona F1 test

Valtteri Bottas led Mercedes to the top of the timesheets in the morning session of the final day of Formula 1's in-season test in Barcelona, edging out Ferrari's Antonio Giovinazzi just before the lunch break.

After seeing teammate Lewis Hamilton complete more than 100 laps in the Mercedes W09 on Tuesday, Bottas took over for the start of Wednesday's running, racking up 60 laps through the first four hours before lunch.

Bottas recorded a fastest lap time of 1m16.904s on the Supersoft tyre to finish just 0.068 seconds clear of Giovinazzi in P2, with the Italian's lap being set on the quicker Hypersoft compound.

Kevin Magnussen ended the morning in third place for Haas, 1.3 seconds off Bottas' top time, while Lando Norris sat fourth for McLaren as he began the tema's regular testing programme, having been assigned Pirelli tyre development duties on Tuesday morning.

In his first F1 test, Renault youngster Jack Aitken finished the morning fifth-fastest with 63 laps under his belt, edging ahead of Sauber's Charles Leclerc by half a tenth to leave the Monegasque racer P6.

Robert Kubica returned to the cockpit of the Williams FW41 car following his practice appearance on Friday, finishing the morning in seventh place, with Force India's Nikita Mazepin taking P8 ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne, who was assigned to McLaren's Pirelli test running.

Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis got his first taste of F1 machinery on Wednesday morning, ending the session P10 ahead of Sean Gelael, who was given more time in the Toro Rosso after an issue cut his day short on Tuesday. Nicholas Latifi propped up the timesheets in the second Force India, having joined Vandoorne on Pirelli duty.