Faced with a gearbox problem the day before the first day of F1 winter testing, the Mercedes team was able to set a record in Bahrain on Saturday.
At the end of the 58th lap in the afternoon, the Finn became the author of the best time since the start of these preparation tests next season, which will begin at the same location on March 28.
The Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) had the best performance in Friday’s game when he stopped at 1 point 30.674 s. Bottas teammate Lewis Hamilton had only the 15th fastest time on Saturday.
Frenchman Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) followed Bottas, while Lance Stroll (Friday, 4th Friday) still performed well, taking the fastest time of the day ( 1 point 30.460 s) ranked third.
The Quebec driver will start his fifth season in F1. He has preserved furniture for the Aston Martin team managed by his father Alan Martin (Lawrence).
His new teammate Sebastian Vettel (Sebastian Vettel) was also restricted to 10 laps in the morning due to a poor gearbox.
“Today was a relatively successful afternoon because a mechanical failure shortened Sebastian’s track time today,” Stroll said. Fortunately, everything has returned to normal since then. “
“We have again completed all the tasks that were scheduled, although the wind once again made the runway conditions unfavorable.”
The day back to school was another Canadian full-time job in F1. Nicholas Latifi left Williams’ car on Friday to test the driver Roy Nissany. .
The Toronto native ranked seventh after completing 132 laps, the highest among 16 riders who rode on Saturday.
“The three months of inactivity seemed to be very long,” Latifi said. It feels good to stand on the steering wheel of F1. This is a productive day. “
His comeback was marked by two mistakes, but not serious.
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