Kubica fastest, Vettel spins as second F1 test begins

Robert Kubica led the way for Alfa Romeo on Wednesday morning as the second Formula 1 pre-season test got underway at Barcelona.

As the 10 teams resumed their winter programmes on the morning of the second and final three-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Cataunya ahead of the upcoming 2020 campaign, it was Alfa Romeo test and reserve driver Kubica who set the pace.

The Pole’s 1m16.942s effort - set on Pirelli’s softest available C5 compound - was six-tenths clear of Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon in what proved to be a disrupted start to the day for the Honda-powered Red Bull and AlphaTauri squads.

AlphaTauri driver Gasly and Red Bull's Albon failed to set a lap time until the final hour of the morning, with both sidelined in their respective garages for much of the four-hour session. Gasly strapped on a set of C2 Soft tyres late on to improve to second as he turned in 25 laps, with Albon managing 29. 

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton was fourth-quickest and 0.620s off the pace in his Mercedes W11 as he logged the most mileage of any driver on 89 laps before handing over to teammate Valtteri Bottas for the afternoon. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll maintained Racing Point’s impressive pre-season as he completed the top five order.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel caused the first red flag of the day when he lost control of his SF1000 at Turn 8, ran across the gravel and spun on the exit of the corner. The German was able to continue and totalled 84 laps as he finished 1.171s adrift in sixth.

Next up came Daniel Ricciardo for Renault, who edged McLaren’s Carlos Sainz by just 0.007s.

Nicholas Latifi logged 48 laps for Williams and was ninth in the timesheets after causing the second stoppage of the morning when his FW43 conked out and ground to a halt on the run to Turn 9, resulting in the Canadian rookie missing the final hour of running.

Romain Grosjean rounded out the timesheets in 10th place for Haas as the Frenchman finished over 1.7s off Kubica’s benchmark.

Teams have also been sampling a special prototype front-tyre which may be used at this year's Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort if successful. 

F1 testing resumes this afternoon at 1400hours local time (1300 GMT) following an hour’s lunch break.