Mazepin quickest on Mercedes test debut in Barcelona
Nikita Mazepin finished his first official Formula 1 test outing with Mercedes at the top of the timesheets as the final in-season running of the year took place on Wednesday in Spain.
Formula 2 driver Mazepin, 20, was given the chance to test with Mercedes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after previously completing a private test programme with the team, as well as working in their simulator.
Nikita Mazepin finished his first official Formula 1 test outing with Mercedes at the top of the timesheets as the final in-season running of the year took place on Wednesday in Spain.
Formula 2 driver Mazepin, 20, was given the chance to test with Mercedes at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya after previously completing a private test programme with the team, as well as working in their simulator.
The Russian bounced back from a spin off-track in the morning session to make a number of improvements late in the day, ultimately finishing with a best lap time of 1m15.715s to finish fastest of all.
The lap would have been good enough for P2 on the grid for last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, three-tenths of a second off Valtteri Bottas' pole time - although it was set on the C5 tyre, Pirelli's softest compound.
Mazepin took top spot ahead of Toro Rosso's Alexander Albon, who finished 1.3 seconds shy of the fastest time. The Thai driver also brought proceedings to an early end on Wednesday when he stopped at Turn 10 with 10 minutes left on the clock.
Ferrari drivers Antonio Fuoco and Charles Leclerc finished third and fourth respectively, with Leclerc tasked with Pirelli tyre development work through the day. Both finished 1.5 seconds off Mazepin's time.
Kimi Raikkonen took fifth for Alfa Romeo ahead of Renault's Jack Aitken in sixth, with morning leader Kevin Magnussen falling down to seventh for Haas by the end of the day.
Nick Yelloly finished eighth for Racing Point ahead of Williams' Nicholas Latifi, while Dan Ticktum ended up P10 in his second official F1 test outing for Red Bull.
McLaren split running between Oliver Turvey and Sergio Sette Camara on Wednesday, who completed the morning and afternoon sessions respectively. Turvey finished 11th-fastest, while Sette Camara was slowest after only managing 19 laps in total due to an issue that forced him to stop on-track with two hours left in the day.
Besides Leclerc, Lance Stroll was also completing tyre development work for Pirelli, finishing 12th.
The next official F1 test running will take place in Abu Dhabi at the end of the year on December 3-4.
