MONTMELO, Spain -- Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished the second day of pre-season testing at the top of the timesheets after beating the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas to the fastest time by 0.303s.
After Daniel Ricciardo set the pace for Red Bull on day one, Vettel lowered the benchmark time by 0.5s to a 1:19.673 on Tuesday. Bottas also dipped into the 1:19s in the afternoon session after spending a full day at the wheel of the Mercedes.
A bitterly cold start to the session resulted in just a handful of installation laps during the first hour. With Pirelli's tyres struggling to operate if they are not warmed to 90C, air temperatures below zero and a track temperature of 2.