F1 Pre-Season Testing 2017: Wednesday Times and Analysis from Barcelona

Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes set the fastest lap of Formula One pre-season testing so far on Wednesday as he posted a time of one minute, 19.310 seconds at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

The Finn registered his flying lap on the supersoft tyres, while Williams' Felipe Massa—who headed the timesheets on Tuesday—posted the second-fastest time of Wednesday's morning session on the ultrasoft compound.

In the afternoon, Lewis Hamilton stepped in for Bottas, with the 32-year-old's focus on long runs. An otherwise quiet session was punctured a moment to forget for Ferrari man Kimi Raikkonen, though, as he planted his Ferrari into the barriers, and a red flag for Max Verstappen, who parked up his Red Bull in the latter stages.

Here is a look back at how both sessions panned out on another fascinating day in pre-season in Barcelona.

Morning Recap

Here is how the standings looked after Wednesday's morning session, per the FIA:

Two-time world champion Alonso was the first out on track as he looked to put McLaren's woes to bed following a dismal few days of testing in which they have been forced into multiple engine changes. 

The Spaniard was in and out of the garage for the duration of the session but, according to the team's Twitter feed, he was able to run the desired plan:

Bottas posted the best time early on as he donned the ultrasofts to register a 1:21.229, a time eventually eclipsed by Red Bull's Verstappen, who returned a 1:20.516 on the soft compound.

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg then pushed Bottas down to third as he posted a 1:21.213 on the supersofts.

Not to be outdone, Bottas followed his morning of lap accumulation by donning the supersofts to register his 1:19.310 and move back to the top of the pile, eclipsing his own best effort from last week's testing, per Pirelli Motorsport:

It was then Massa's turn to find a flying lap time as he registered a 1:19.420 on ultrasofts, not quite enough for him to eclipse former team-mate Bottas, but further encouragement from an excellent couple of days for Williams.

Given the Brazilian announced his retirement from the sport back in September, it is becoming clear he made the right decision not to go through with it.

Raikkonen spent much of Wednesday's morning action in the garage, prompting speculation there may be something wrong with the Ferrari, but fears were allayed when he finally emerged on track, with the Italian team explaining his absence:

The 37-year-old former world champion immediately showed the impressive form the Ferrari has throughout testing, posting a 1:20.406 to place third.   

Afternoon Recap

Here are the standings in full from the afternoon session:

Just as the big names were beginning to settle into their rhythm after lunch, the session was red-flagged. And that was because one of the big names had gone off in Raikkonen.

At Turn 3, the Finn lost control of his SF70H and had to have it airlifted out of the gravel.

Here's a look at where the veteran driver, who was fine after the incident, ended up, per Pete Gill of Sky Sports:

Although the damage was minimal to the Ferrari, it was enough to keep Raikkonen in the garage for the rest of the session.

Verstappen continued in the Red Bull in the afternoon, looking to get to race distance after the interval.  

Per the team's official Twitter feed, the youngster was enjoying a prosperous day in the RB13 in terms of distance and speed:

However, in the latter stages of the session, the Dutchman ran into some trouble, meaning he only completed 62 of the 66 scheduled laps in the stanza.

As we can see here, he broke down and triggered more red flags, per Sky F1 Insider:

Meanwhile, Mercedes man Hamilton took over from Bottas at the interval. The Briton spent much of the session on the soft compound—slower that the supersoft used by Bottas in the morning—meaning he didn't match the searing speed of his team-mate.

Even though these pre-season outings are relatively low key, as we can see here courtesy of the Mercedes Twitter feed, Hamilton was still well supported:

McLaren's better day continued into the afternoon as well, as Alonso continued to put together short bursts. The team were clearly erring on the side of caution and may not have got as many laps in as their competitors, but the Spaniard would have been pleased to see some semblance or reliability from the team.

The man out on track the most on Wednesday, aside from Verstappen, was Sergio Perez in the Force India; the Mexican got 100 valuable laps under his belt. 

Lance Stroll, the 18-year-old Williams driver who had a difficult first week in testing, was solid enough during his 25 laps on track in the afternoon. Stroll's 1:20.579 was the fifth-quickest time of the day.