Barcelona Pre-Season Testing – Day 5: Mercedes at the Top, Ferrari at a Standstill

Confident in their approach and performance, the Mercedes team decided today to outplay the competition by recording the fastest time of the day, with Nico Rosberg this morning, and they did so without using the softest, and therefore quickest, tires.

In the afternoon, Lewis Hamilton took over from his teammate for a flawlessly executed race simulation. It seems that after four fairly quiet but diligent first days, the two Silver Arrows have decided to come out and demonstrate their strength.

Behind, the competition has reason to worry, especially since reliability has not really been up to par. Especially on the Ferrari side, presented as the only one capable of disrupting the Mercedes hegemony. Kimi Räikkönen suffered a gearbox failure and had to wait at his pit for two long hours.

On the side of the day’s unfortunate, the new American team Haas experienced teething problems, preventing Esteban Gutierrez from shining. The same was true at Manor, where Rio Haryanto spent more time in the pit than on the track due to an oil leak issue.

A situation that, for once, McLaren did not experience, as Fernando Alonso was able to complete an impressive 93 laps to secure the third-best performance of the day.

Also worth noting are the first laps of Sauber’s newborn, the C35, which surpassed the 100-lap mark with Felipe Nasr, demonstrating interesting reliability, if not undeniable speed.

The complete schedule of the day: