Valtteri Bottas has noticed an improvement with the balance of the W10 after another mammoth testing stint for Mercedes.
After piling up 150 laps on the opening day at the Circuit de Catalunya, the reigning champions were back to add another 163 laps on day two.
Five-time World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, had a tricky start to proceedings in the Barcelona cold on Tuesday morning but was still happy with his work as he went under the radar in P10 with 74 laps.
“It’s been a good day overall,” Hamilton said via the official Mercedes website.
“It was quite cold in the morning, so switching the tyres on was a little bit tricky, but it seemed like a few people had similar issues.
“We were focusing on working through our run plan and we got through everything we wanted.
“It’s good that we’re getting in a lot of mileage and we will try to increase that over the next days as we continue to discover the characteristics of this car.
“That’s the exciting part about it – learning something new and being faced with different challenges.
“Everyone is working so diligently, I’m really happy to be here with everyone for the seventh year in a row and I’m excited for this journey that we’re embarking on.”
And it’s sundown on the second day in Barcelona ?? A mighty haul of 163 laps for the day! Great stint from both of the boys and W10 ? #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/fa89NRvEtK
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) February 19, 2019
Bottas, meanwhile, racked up a further 92 laps in the afternoon, finishing P6 with a best time of 1:19.535 – Mercedes’ best time of testing so far.
“We did a lot of laps today and again managed to complete our run plan,” Bottas added.
“We’re learning a lot about the W10 with each run and we’re building a better understanding of the set-up.
“The car was better balanced than yesterday, but there’s still a bit of room for improvement.
“As you can tell from the lap times, we’ve been focusing on long-run work.
“I’ll be in the car tomorrow morning, so it will be a busy evening for me, taking in all the learnings from today.
“It’s been a pretty normal test so far; fortunately, the car has been very reliable, so that’s good news.”
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