Mercedes shows pace but Lewis

Image via @MercedesAMGF1

Mercedes shows pace but Lewis Hamilton has engine concerns

Valtteri Bottas finished pre-season testing with the two fastest lap times but team-mate Lewis Hamilton is “for sure” worried about the power unit.

Mercedes shows pace but Lewis

Image via @MercedesAMGF1

Quickest on the final day of both pre-season tests, Mercedes are looking fast ahead of the Australian GP but Lewis Hamilton fears the reliability may not be there.

Valtteri Bottas bags yet another P1

Splitting the driver duties on Friday, Valtteri Bottas put on a set of the C5 Pirellis and leapfrogged the morning’s pace-setter, Daniel Ricciardo, to go top of the timesheet.

The Finn shaved a further tenth off on his next hot lap, lowering the P1 time to 1:16.196. That, though, was four-tenths down on his best from the previous Friday.

It did, however, mean the Finn claimed the fastest two lap times in testing.

Max Verstappen was second fastest on Friday with a 1:16.269 but interestingly the Red Bull driver opted not to complete his next flying lap despite being up through the first two seconds.

He finished 0.073s down with Ricciardo dropping to third ahead of Charles Leclerc and Hamilton.

Mercedes’ pace may be looking good on paper, but the German manufacturer had four engine related problems during testing, two for Mercedes and two for Williams.

Asked about his team’s engine issues, Hamilton admitted he is worried.

“Is it a concern?” he said. “Yeah. For sure.

“Normally in the pre-season we have much more confidence in the reliability so it has not been perfect. We are on our second or third engine.

“So it is definitely not an easy or relaxed scenario for us. But I have every confidence in the guys back at the factory that they can do the best job they can in the next two weeks to make sure we start on the right foot.

“I don’t know where everyone else is, but I understand the car well.

“I am comfortable and confident in terms of getting a car in Melbourne and knowing that I can attack and extract the most from it.

“But if that’s going to be enough to be ahead of the others we will find out.”

Ferrari’s concerns are solely about pace

Mercedes may be worried about reliability, but Ferrari is concerned about the SF1000’s pace.

Although Leclerc had a good final day on the C5 tyres, fourth fastest, Sebastian Vettel’s best time left him down in ninth place on the overall timesheet.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff insists Ferrari has about a “second” in the bag when it finally does turn up the engine but team boss Mattia Binotto has once again refuted this.

The Italian said: “It is difficult to say if we’re slow because of the engine power or because of the drag.

“We are not hiding. This is the real performance of our car.

“I can confirm that I am not as optimistic as I was last year and our car is not the fastest. Having said that, the car seems to be reliable and the season is long.”

A few problems near the bottom of the log

Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen, Kevin Magnussen and Alexander Albon completed the timesheet with all four having one problem or another on Friday.

Grosjean, who was P11 and 0.841s off the pace, had an off at Turn 7 while Raikkonen spun in the morning’s session.

The Alfa Romeo driver got it wrong at the exit of Turn 15 as he applied the throttle.

Kevin Magnussen missed most of the afternoon session as the Haas VF20 suffered a suspected clutch problem.

He covered just 29 laps.

As for Alexander Albon, the Red Bull driver spun coming out of Turn 11.

The lap times

1 – Valtteri Bottas – Mercedes – 1:16.196s – 79 laps
2 – Max Verstappen – Red Bull – 1:16.269s – +0.073 – 45 laps
3 – Daniel Ricciardo – Renault – 1:16.276s – +0.080 – 65 laps
4 – Charles Leclerc – Ferrari – 1:16.360s – +0.164 – 181 laps
5 – Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – 1:16.410s – +0.214 – 90 laps
6 – Esteban Ocon – Renault – 1:16.433s – +0.237 – 75 laps
7 – Sergio Perez – Racing Point – 1:16.634s – +0.438 – 154 laps
8 – Carlos Sainz – McLaren – 1:16.820s – +0.624 – 163 laps
9 – George Russell – Williams – 1:16.871s – +0.675 – 146 laps
10 – Daniil Kvyat – AlphaTauri – 1:16.914s – +0.718 – 160 laps
11 – Romain Grosjean – Haas – 1:17.037s – +0.841 – 86 laps
12 – Kimi Raikkonen – Alfa Romeo – 1:17.415s – +1.219 – 115 laps
13 – Kevin Magnussen – Haas – 1:17.495s – +1.299 – 29 laps
14 – Alex Albon – Red Bull – 1:17.803s – +1.607 – 59 laps

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