Bottas ends final Barcelona in-season F1 test day on top

Valtteri Bottas ended the first in-season Formula 1 test of the season at the front of the pack for Mercedes as running came to a close at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Wednesday evening.

Three days after finishing second behind teammate Lewis Hamilton in the Spanish Grand Prix, Bottas got back behind the wheel of the Mercedes W09 car to complete more than 130 laps en route to the head of the field.

Bottas' fastest time from the morning of 1m16.904s was good enough for P1 come the chequered flag at 6pm local time in Barcelona, having set his best time on the Supersoft compound tyre.

Antonio Giovinazzi took second as he enjoyed his first official run-out in Ferrari's 2017-spec SF71H car, having driven for Sauber on Tuesday. The 2016 GP2 runner-up finished just 0.068 seconds shy of Bottas in P1, with his fastest lap coming on the Hypersoft compound that will make its race debut in Monaco.

A setting issue forced McLaren's Lando Norris to stop his car soon after leaving the pits in the afternoon, but the Formula 2 racer was able to get back out on track and improve his time in the closing moments of the session, thanks to a flying effort of Pirelli's Soft compound. 

Kevin Magnussen ended the day fourth for Haas, but was forced to park his car up in the garage early due to an issue that caused the first of two red flags in the afternoon session. The Dane's best lap was 1.3 seconds slower than that of Bottas at the top of the standings.

Force India youngster Nikita Mazepin spent a productive day behind the wheel of the VJM11 car, racking up more than 100 laps en route to fifth place.

Jack Aitken's maiden F1 test for Renault saw him complete 120 laps en route to P6, finishing ahead of Sauber's Charles Leclerc. Robert Kubica followed in eighth for Williams as he continued to get to grips with the team's FW41 car after appearing in FP1 last Friday in Barcelona.

After seeing Sean Geleal complete 83 laps in the morning, Pierre Gasly took over for Toro Rosso in the afternoon in the STR13, but could only manage 39 laps as he finished ninth overall. Stoffel Vandoorne followed in P10, having spent the day on Pirelli tyre testing duty alongside Force India's Nicholas Latifi.

Jake Dennis' surprise F1 test call-up for Red Bull ended with him 11th in the standings and with 74 laps to his name as the team's simulator driver got a first real taste of the RB14 car. His time was 3.5 seconds slower than Bottas', leaving him ahead only of Gelael and Latifi in the final timesheets.

F1 teams will get their next collective testing opportunity at the Hungaroring following the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July.