Barcelona F1 test: Verstappen keeps Red Bull on top

The Red Bull driver, fresh from his victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, had spent the morning running on both medium and soft tyres as he evaluated aerodynamic updates and Renault's new engine.

It was on a soft tyre run, just an hour before the lunch break, that the Dutchman set the fastest lap of the day – a 1m23.267s – which was just shy of Sebastian Vettel's best effort from the opening day.

In the afternoon, Verstappen continued to put valuable mileage on his new power unit in a bid to prove its reliability and give Renault a better idea on whether or not it is ready to be introduced at the Monaco Grand Prix.

McLaren reserve Stoffel Vandoorne ended the day second overall, with his fastest time from the morning (1m24.006s) having been set on super soft tyres.

In the afternoon, Vandoorne focused on long runs in the cooler conditions to allow his team to run through a test programme that allowed it to trial new parts that it hopes will lift performance over the remainder of the season.

Pascal Wehrlein, who was a last-minute addition to the Mercedes line-up after the team decided it wanted an experienced driver to check new parts, ended up third fastest with a 1m24.145s after a qualifying simulation soft tyre run early in the afternoon.

Fourth fastest Esteban Gutierrez had begun the morning focusing on aerodynamic evaluation on medium tyres, but switched focus to faster short runs in the afternoon.

During some super soft runs after lunch he got down to a 1m24.592s which was not improved upon, despite switching to ultrasofts late on.

Ferrari young driver Antonio Fuoco did a late run on soft tyres to set the fifth fastest time of 1m24.720s.

Daniil Kvyat, who brought out a red flag in the afternoon after stopping on track following a race simulation run, was sixth fastest with his quickest lap from the morning of 1m24.737s.

Force India test driver Alfonso Celis Jr. delivered a late lap of 1m25.016s on supersofts to set the seventh fastest time, ahead of Kevin Magnussen, whose best lap was set in the morning before he focused on test evaluation runs late on.

The other red flag came out in the morning when Manor's Jordan King ran wide at Turn 7 and spread gravel on the track, which needed to be removed by circuit personnel.

Day 2 results

Pos.	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:23.267		118
2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:24.006	+0.739	108
3	Pascal Wehrlein	Mercedes	1:24.145	+0.878	133
4	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	1:24.592	+1.325	105
5	Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari	1:24.720	+1.453	118
6	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	1:24.737	+1.470	116
7	Alfonso Celis	Force India	1:25.016	+1.749	103
8	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	1:25.133	+1.866	122
9	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:27.167	+3.900	94
10	Jordan King	Manor	1:27.615	+4.348	91