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Barcelona F1 test: Massa puts Williams top on first morning

Felipe Massa put Williams on top during the first morning of Formula 1's second pre-season 2017 test, coming within two hundredths of a second of the fastest time of last week.

Felipe Massa, Williams FW40

Felipe Massa, Williams FW40

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The Brazilian’s best time of 1m19.726s came in the final half-hour of running, deposing the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo – who had held the top spot for most of the morning – from first place.

Using supersoft tyres, Massa ended up 0.174s clear of Ricciardo, whose best time came on ultrasofts, but fell short of Valtteri Bottas’ benchmark last Wednesday by just 0.021s.

Ricciardo initially suffered an off at Turn 4 on his first ultrasoft run, but was able to return to the track in the final five minutes, posting a 1m19.900s to cement second.

Behind the top two, Lewis Hamilton was third-fastest in the Mercedes - 0.730s slower than Massa, albeit using softs - followed by Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari on mediums.

It was Vettel who logged the most miles during the morning session however, the German driver racking up 82 laps – 15 more than Massa, the morning’s next most productive driver.

Hamilton, who spent some of the morning in the garage while the team carried out adjustments on the front of the car, only managed 49.

Fifth fastest was the Force India of Esteban Ocon, using supersofts, followed by Haas newcomer Kevin Magnussen, who ended up sixth using softs.

After losing the final day of last week to a power unit change, Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso) logged 44 laps on his way to the seventh best time of the morning.

But there was more drama for McLaren and Honda towards the end of the session as another engine problem required a change of power unit and limited Stoffel Vandoorne to just 34 laps.

The Belgian was eighth fastest, 2.9s off the pace, using soft tyres.

On his first run in Sauber’s C36, Pascal Wehrlein was ninth ahead of Jolyon Palmer (Renault), whose morning was curtailed by a sensor issue on the Renault RS17 after he had posted only 15 laps.

Day 1 morning test times:

 DriverTeamTimeGap TyreLaps
1  F. Massa  Williams 1:19.726    67
2  D. Ricciardo  Red Bull 1:19.900 0.174 52
3  L. Hamilton  Mercedes 1:20.456 0.730 49
4  S. Vettel  Ferrari 1:21.127 1.401  82
5  E. Ocon  Force India 1:21.347 1.621    59
6  K. Magnussen  Haas 1:21.676 1.950      48
7  D. Kvyat  Toro Rosso 1:21.965 2.239   45
8  S. Vandoorne  McLaren 1:22.698  2.972   34
9  P. Wehrlein  Sauber 1:23.336 3.610    47
10  J. Palmer  Renault 1:24.790  5.064     15

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