2018 Pre-Season Test 2, Day 3

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport clocks up the miles, focusing on race simulations

Date:Thursday 8 March 2018

Drivers:             Valtteri Bottas (AM), Lewis Hamilton (PM)

Circuit:Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Circuit Length:4.655 km

Laps Completed:Valtteri 97, Lewis 84, Total 181

Distance Covered:Valtteri 452 km, Lewis 391 km, Total 843 km

Best Lap Time:Valtteri 1:19.532, Lewis 1:19.296

With 181 laps completed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the penultimate day of 2018 pre-season testing turned out to be the team’s busiest so far.

• Valtteri drove the F1 W09 EQ Power+ in the morning, completing 97 laps before the lunch break
• Lewis hit the track in the afternoon, adding another 84 laps to the W09’s tally
• Both drivers completed similar test programmes, doing race simulations and gathering data on the 2018 Pirelli tyres
• Mercedes-Benz Power Units today completed a total of 2,234 km
• Rights-free imagery is now available on our media site

Valtteri Bottas:

Today was one of those days that you learn the most from as a driver. For the first time this year, I did a race simulation with a proper race distance. You have the mind-set that it’s a race and try to take everything out of the car and the tyres. A real race distance gives you more time to learn and experience different driving lines.

The race run seemed quite competitive, everything felt alright. The Medium tyre is behaving well on this track and in these conditions.

Both the team and I have been understanding the new tyres more and more every day. But, we need keep in mind that it will be very different in Australia.

I still have another half day left in the car tomorrow afternoon. It will be the last time I’m going to be in the car before Melbourne, so we need to make sure we make the most out of that time, run all the tests we still need to do and learn as much as we can. Overall, today was a very positive day and a real teaser for Melbourne.

Lewis Hamilton:

Our week has been very productive so far. We got through everything we needed, reliability has been fantastic and the car feels great. We have not been working on balance, but in terms of some of the issues we had last year, a lot of them appear to have been removed. We get great correlation when we change bits of the car, so it’s been a smooth transition this year so far.

The track is very different to what it used to be because they resurfaced it. So it’s difficult to know what all the experience means once we get to Melbourne. But, I definitely feel that we’re moving in a positive direction. I’m really proud of everyone. They’v e been working so well in the team, the synergy is great at the moment.

On another note, I know it’s International Women’s Day today so happy International Women’s Day to all the ladies, to my Mum also and to my sisters. I think it’s an amazing time for women. In my team, there’s more women engineers than ever before. So I think it’s a good time and I hope everyone has an amazing day.