F1 - General discussion and 2017

[caroper]

Renault driver Nico Hülkenberg has improved his time to 1:24.028 on the medium compound.

Valtteri Bottas is already half way to team-mate Lewis Hamilton's morning haul of laps, with the Finn onto his 24th of the afternoon in the W08.

He's on longer runs with his quickest time so far just 1:21.988, putting him eighth on the timesheet at the moment.

Bottas jumps to P6 with a 1m21.375s, still a second off the pace of Massa but on soft tyres.

 

[caroper]

Now Vettel dips below the 1m20s barrier with a 1m19.986s, which keeps him third.
It's still slower than Williams and Red Bull have managed so far today, but his 1:19.986 is only fractionally slower than the Scuderia's best from last week.

 

[caroper]

Hulkenberg pits the Renault, leaving only Vettel and Bottas on track. The latter has completed 28 laps so far, although - for once - Mercedes is lagging some way behind on lap count today.

 

[caroper]

Massa back out for Williams, 90 laps down for the Brazilian so far today as he makes up for the mileage he lost after team-mate Lance Stroll's shunt last week.

Three drivers on track - Valtteri Bottas, Esteban Ocon and Felipe Massa.

 

[caroper]

Massa's time on track doesn't last long, but Magnussen has bolted on a set of supersofts for this run. Will we see the Dane climbing up the times?

Disappointingly, Magnussen falls two tenths short of his best time on the red-marked rubber. Only Bottas and Ocon out on track along with him right now.

 

[caroper]

Almost two hours in the afternoon, and Vandoorne makes his first showing since the lunch break in the McLaren MCL32 after that power unit change.

 

[caroper]

Vandoorne is back in the pits after a couple of exploratory laps in the McLaren on ultrasofts - and now the track is empty, barring fan favourite Ericsson and his Sauber, of course.

 

[caroper]

half way into the afternoon session the time sheets are:

1. Massa Williams FW40 1:19.726 93 ●
2. Ricciardo Red Bull Racing RB13 1:19.900 +0.174 64 ● PIT
3. Vettel Ferrari SF70-H 1:19.986 +0.260 106 ● PIT
4. Hamilton Mercedes W08 1:20.456 +0.730 49 ● PIT
5. Ocon Force India VJM10 1:21.347 +1.621 88 ● PIT
6. Bottas Mercedes W08 1:21.375 +1.649 38 ● PIT
7. Magnussen Haas F1 VF-17 1:21.676 +1.950 67 ● PIT
8. Kvyat Toro Rosso STR12 1:21.965 +2.239 45 ● PIT
9. Vandoorne McLaren MCL32 1:22.698 +2.972 36 ● PIT
10. Wehrlein Sauber C36 1:23.336 +3.610 47 ● PIT
11. Ericsson Sauber C36 1:23.630 +3.904 25 ● PIT
12. Hülkenberg Renault RS17 1:24.028 +4.302 14 ● PIT
13. Palmer Renault RS17 1:24.790 +5.064 15 ● PIT

Massa - 92
Ricciardo - 84
Vettel - 106
Hamilton - 49
Ocon - 88
Bottas - 38
Magnussen - 67
Kvyat - 45
Vandoorne - 36
Wehrlein - 47
Ericsson - 25
Hulkenberg - 14
Palmer - 15

 

[caroper]

It's been steady-as-she-goes for Renault since returning to the track after their own power unit change.

Nico Hulkenberg has racked up 14 laps, just one fewer than Jolyon Palmer managed this morning, but the two Renault drivers remain rooted to the bottom of the Day One order.

 

[caroper]

And with two hours remaining, here are the big talking points so far:

* Massa and Williams take a shock position at the top of the times in the morning on super-soft rubber

* Ricciardo and Vettel put Red Bull and Ferrari into the 1m19s as well on ultra-soft and soft tyres

* Vettel racks up more than 100 laps, the only driver hit a ton so far

* After a morning engine change, Vandoorne returns to the track in the McLaren-Honda

* Hulkenberg takes over the Renault following the RS17's own engine change, which hurt Palmer's morning running

* Bottas replaces Hamilton at Mercedes, while Ericsson takes over from Wehrlein

 

[caroper]

Vettel's rejoining the action in his Ferrari, while Vandoorne's also hit the track again in the McLaren-Honda. Vandoorne's posted a 1m26.9s out of the box, and he'll be hoping he can get a few more laps (and go a bit quicker as well).

Kvyat's back in, rumbling the Toro Rosso down the pitlane. Must have been some timing screen confusion there, because that was actually just Vandoorne's outlap!

 

[caroper]

A new fastest testing time for Ferrari - and a new benchmark for soft tyres!

Sebastian Vettel clocks 1:19.906 on the yellow-marked compound, five hundredths quicker than he managed on the same tyres last week. He's just 0.006s slower than Ricciardo now.

 

[caroper]

Vandoorne's definitely done a flying lap now! It's not a bad one, in the grand scheme of things – a 1m22.816s, which is just over a tenth off his best so far.

 

[caroper]

MASSA GOES PAST 100 LAP MARK
Williams has joined Ferrari in today's 100+ tally. Good, smooth day of running so far Felipe Massa.

 

[caroper]

The track's getting slightly busier now. Massa, Magnussen and Kvyat get in on the fun in the afternoon sun.

Speaking of sun, it's now 15C outside. Some of us are so English we might burn if we go out there for too long.

Track temperature is north of 20C, so conditions are constantly improving. Perfect time for someone to bolt on some ultra softs and shoot for the 1m18s, we'd argue...

 

[caroper]

Vandoorne's back in the pits, having taken McLaren's tally for the day to 43. There's still time to get some good running in if all is well, but only Renault's logged fewer laps than McLaren today.

Nobody's really threatening to improve at this stage. Magnussen's come closest, posting a 1m21.9s (three tenths off his best). Massa and Kvyat aren't pushing to the same degree.

Hulkenberg's out on track though, Renault clearly spying an opportunity to make up ground on McLaren and avoid the wooden spoon for mileage completed.

Bottas has headed out in his Mercedes, while Ericsson's back out in his Sauber. Perhaps we need to curb our enthusiasm for Sauber, but we're not Larry David. So we'll continue enjoying the presence of an endearing underdog team.

An improvement! Bottas goes for green – it's a personal best for the Mercedes man, who is now down to a 1m21.313s. That sneaks him past Ocon and into fifth for the day. Next up is team-mate Lewis Hamilton, although Bottas will need to find eight tenths or so to displace him.

 

[caroper]

Vettel's out there again for Ferrari, you really can't keep a prancing horse down.

Brilliant. Half a dozen cars on a 2.8-mile track, and four of them are running quite close together.

During a bit of window-watching Bottas (on softs), Ocon (mediums), Kvyat (softs) and Hulkenberg (mediums) come past a few seconds apart.

We prefer it when they are bunched together, but maybe a bit more space would be more sensible. There's plenty of it.

Kvyat's pit, maybe Toro Rosso heard us? Vettel interrupted the start of this run with a drivethrough at the end of his outlap. But, as Bottas pounds round in the 1m22s, Vettel's now cracking on himself in the 1m23s.

 

[caroper]

Speaking of long runs, we're charting Bottas and Vettel at the moment. Both are on softs and are very consistent in their lap times, although Bottas is in the low 1m23s whereas Vettel's at the opposite end of that bracket.

Valtteri Bottas has just matched Lewis Hamilton's total of 49 laps for the day, and continues to make ground this afternoon.

He's now fifth with that 1:21.313, which is almost a second slower than his team-mate's best effort.

 

[caroper]

Bottas and Vettel are running a few seconds apart on track, which is quite nice when you're logging lap times. They don't have the circuit to themselves though – Massa's back out and Ocon's hammering round as well.

Bottas marches on with his fifth consecutive time in the low-1m23s, while Vettel has pit in the Ferrari. His nine-lap stint was shorter than the Mercedes', which is into double digits.

 

[caroper]

Vandoorne's back out, and he's set a personal best lap time. At last, McLaren-Honda starts to move forward. It's a 1m22.537s for the Belgian so it's a modest gain, but a gain nonetheless.

Bottas brings that strong stint to an end. There was clearly life in the tyres, too – his last flying lap was a 1m22.9s, after half a dozen in the low-1m23s.

Vandoorne's backed off after that personal best, is he cooling down his soft tyres for another attempt?

He is, but it's not as strong – some seven tenths slower, in fact.