F1 Pre-Season Testing 2020: Times and Thursday Analysis from Barcelona

Kimi Raikkonen posted Thursday's quickest time during the afternoon session on Day 2 of Formula One testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.

The Alfa Romeo driver was responsible for the first red flag of this testing session but still posted a lap time of one minute, 17.091 seconds. In the process, Raikkonen topped the mark established earlier by Racing Point's Sergio Perez, who led the morning session when he completed a lap in 1:17.347.

Both Raikkonen and Perez were among the eight drivers to surpass 100 laps on a busy day of testing. They were joined by Lewis Hamilton, who topped the pile in Wednesday's run but settled for ninth at the end of the action.

The official Formula One Twitter account posted the times:

Morning Session Recap

Renault's Daniel Ricciardo may have been pleased to pip Red Bull's Alexander Albon to second, though the Australian was still four-tenths of a second slower than the leader.

Perez held the edge in the first two sectors, but Renault's star driver proved his mettle in the finishing third:

Ricciardo's performance was especially impressive considering his R.S.20 racked up the fewest laps of any car that took to the track on Thursday morning, per Autosport Live:

Hamilton's high lap count is understandable after Formula One took the decision to reduce the number of testing days from eight down to six in 2020.

His total still didn't come close to the 168 laps managed by Red Bull's Max Verstappen on Day 1, though his new W11 will have nonetheless contributed useful data after running largely on hard tyres.

Spectators were also intrigued by a new innovation on the W11, which saw Hamilton moving his steering wheel backwards and forwards on certain straights and turns.

Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz said a source at Mercedes confirmed the change to their car, which appears to allow the driver to adjust the ride height and influence its aerodynamics:

That newly spotted addition is an example of the innovation that has tended to put Mercedes ahead of their peers in recent years, with Hamilton chasing his seventh world championship in 2020.

British compatriot Lando Norris ended bottom of the times in Thursday's morning session with a fastest lap of 1:18.537 in the McLaren MCL35, which managed 48 laps.

That was one fewer than Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari SF1000, who was fast enough to finish sixth after 49 laps. Team-mate Sebastian Vettel will be eager to beat his time of 1:18.335 in his outing later on Thursday.

Afternoon Session Recap

A lot of attention still focused on the changes to steering in Mercedes' cars.

Team technical director James Allison didn't give too much away when describing the merits of the new system, per James Galloway and Matt Morlidge of Sky Sports F1: "It just introduces an extra dimension in the steering for the driver which we hope will be useful during the season. But precisely how we use it, why we use it...that's something we'll keep to ourselves."

Other teams didn't seem flustered by the adjustment, with Red Bull Racing's Christian Horner telling Sky Sports News (h/t Galloway and Morlidge): "Whether that's just a test item and they're testing different tracking, or whether it's a raceable solution, I don't really know. But there are always ingenious solutions like that that are tested. That's what Formula One is all about."

Away from the Silver Arrows, Sebastian Vettel drew the interest of onlookers when he took to the track for the first time. Vettel withdrew with illness on Wednesday, but the 32-year-old managed to get a solid 72 laps under his belt on Thursday, with his time of 1:18.154 good enough for sixth-fastest.

While Vettel eased his way into testing, things were more eventful for other familiar names. Among them, Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas took a spin.

Turn 9 proved to be a problem area on the track, with Daniel Ricciardo clipping the kerb. It was also the spot where Raikkonen incurred the day's red flag:

Raikkonen wasn't disrupted for long, and his pace has shaken up the natural order somewhat ahead of the final day of test one. It's the ideal moment for Ferrari and others to prove Mercedes' tweaked vehicles won't have an unassailable edge once the season begins.