Day 7: Vettel Impresses With Record-Breaking Lap!

Sebastian Vettel has impressed friend and foe on the penultimate day of testing, as the German finished over a second quicker than number two Kevin Magnussen.

Daniel Ricciardo unofficially broke the track record yesterday, but Vettel smashed that record by almost an entire second today; the four-time champions put up a 1:17.182 on the new hypersoft compound. The lap remained quickest throuhout the entire day, as most team decided to focus on long-run pace rather than doing the quickest laps.

The second fastest car was not an expected one: Kevin Magnussen of Haas clocked in at 1:18.360, with Pierre Gasly filling out the fictional podium for Toro Rosso with 1:18.373.

Both Renault drivers finished fourth and fifth, with Nico Hülkenberg just edging out his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr.

Stoffel Vandoorne, who came in sixth, drove the most laps on a day in the second week for McLaren; the Belgian completed 148 laps, despite the team missing two hours of early action due to data analysis.

Mercedes dedicated this Thursday to long-run testing, causing both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to end up in eighth and ninth respectively, with laps two seconds slower than Vettel's.

Robert Kubica rounded out the top ten of the day for Williams, setting the time in his morning run.