MONTMELO, Spain -- Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel topped the opening day of the final pre-season test as McLaren lost more mileage to reliability issues.
Despite significantly warmer conditions than last week, the quickest times were over a second slower than the benchmark lap time set at the end of the first test by Lewis Hamilton. Vettel's best effort was set in the morning using the medium compound tyre and gave the Ferrari driver a 0.200s margin over Valtteri Bottas in the Mercedes using the soft compound.
Max Verstappen was a further 0.053s off in the Red Bull using the medium compounds while Hamilton set the fourth fastest time after taking over Mercedes' driving duties in the afternoon.