2019 Pre-Season Test 2, Day 1

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport start the second week of testing with a new aero package

Date: Monday, 26 February 2019

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

Circuit: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Circuit Length: 4.655 km

Laps Completed: Lewis 83, Valtteri 7, Total 90

Distance Covered:Lewis 386 km, Valtteri 33 km, Total 419 km

Best Lap Time:            Lewis 1:20.332, Valtteri 1:20.167

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport brought an updated bodywork kit to the second and final week of pre-season testing in Barcelona. The team’s programme for the day focused on the initial set-up work and developing an understanding of the new aero package; however, owing to an oil-pressure issue in the early afternoon, the team decided to swap the Power Unit which limited Valtteri’s time behind the wheel.

• Lewis drove the car in the morning, gathering data on the new aero package as well as working on the set-up of the car
• Valtteri got a first feel of the W10 with the updated bodywork in the afternoon; however, his programme was limited owing to an oil pressure issue
• Mercedes-Benz Power Units completed a total of 1355 km today
• Rights-free imagery of the day is available on our media site

Lewis Hamilton

It’s been a beautiful day here in Barcelona and it was great to see that even more fans turned out today. We got through our run programme and the car was feeling relatively good. It was an improvement from last week which is a good step. The tyres are also working a better now that the track temperature is a bit higher. We have to continue to analyse everything and keep pushing.

Valtteri Bottas

Unfortunately, after four days of flawless reliability last week, I spent most of the day waiting as we had an oil pressure issue on my first outlap and had to change the Power Unit. But I’m glad I still got to do a few laps, the team did a really good job to get the car out again; it was important to get a bit of a feel for the new aero package. My running was obviously very limited, but it seems like we’ve made improvements. We need to review everything in more detail tonight and I’m looking forward to continuing our programme tomorrow morning.

James Allison

It was not exactly the day we hoped for, running for the first time with the bodywork kit that we expect to use in Melbourne, with a large part of the day lost to an oil pressure issue at lunchtime. Nevertheless, either side of that problem we did do some useful things, finding that the car behaves a little differently with the new package. We’re looking forward very much to have a trouble-free day tomorrow to get a better feel for what it can do.