Bottas quickest from Lerclerc on first day of Barcelona F1 test

Valtteri Bottas set the pace for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc as the final in-season test of the year got underway in Spain on Tuesday.

Three days after recording three laps good enough for pole position in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, Bottas once again proved to be the man to beat at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he finished over 1.4 seconds clear of the field.

Bottas recorded a best lap time of 1m15.511s on the C5 compound tyre to finish just over one-tenth of a second slower than his pole time and new track record set in qualifying on Saturday, racking up more than 100 laps through his day.

Leclerc was left to settle for second place in the Ferrari SF90, with teammate Sebastian Vettel ending the day down in eighth as he completed tyre development work for Pirelli.

Daniil Kvyat finished third-fastest for Toro Rosso ahead of Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, while Red Bull's Pierre Gasly took fifth despite his day coming to an early end due to a transmission issue on his RB15 car.

Gasly caused the second of two red flags on Tuesday, the first coming after Callum Ilott crashed at Turn 3 for Alfa Romeo towards the end of the fifth hour. While Ilott was unharmed, his car was left with damage that meant his F1 test debut was limited to just 41 laps.

Carlos Sainz took sixth for McLaren ahead of Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi. Nick Yelloly ended up eighth for Racing Point in his first F1 test appearance for three years.

Lando Norris completed the top 10 behind Vettel after taking over from Sainz in the McLaren for the afternoon, finishing ahead of Sergio Perez and Ilott, while Williams' Nicholas Latifi propped up the timesheets in P13.

Running continues with the second and final day of the test in Barcelona on Wednesday.

FORMULA 1 SPAIN IN-SEASON TEST - DAY 1 RESULTS