Motor racing-Raikkonen fastest and brings out first red flag

Kimi Raikkonen lapped fastest for Alfa Romeo before his car stopped on track and brought out the first red flag of Formula One's 2020 pre-season testing on Thursday.

The second day again saw all the teams pile on the mileage, with big guns Ferrari and Mercedes focusing more on working through their programs than outright speed. Raikkonen's fastest lap of one minute 17.091 seconds on the softest tyre at the Circuit de Catalunya was slower than six- times world champion Lewis Hamilton's best of 1.16.976 on the opening day.

Racing Point's Sergio Perez was fastest in the morning with a 1:17.347, but focused on longer runs in the afternoon when he was still second quickest in a new car with striking similarities to last year's title-winning Mercedes. "The car has potential so hopefully we are going to start (the season) strong," said the Mexican.

"In this testing, you don't even look at the timing and what's going on because 10 kilos of fuel is (worth) three tenths (of a second). And you can be on 100 (kilos of fuel) or on five." Hamilton, who led a Mercedes one-two with Valtteri Bottas on Wednesday's timesheets, was only ninth fastest but completed 106 laps in the morning with the team also debuting a new dual-axis steering (DAS) system.

Bottas did 77 laps but ended the day early due to an electrical problem. Sebastian Vettel made his first appearance, after feeling unwell on an opening day without any stoppages, and was sixth and ahead of Ferrari team mate Charles Leclerc in eighth after a morning stint.

Haas's Romain Grosjean ended the day with the most laps under his belt, completing 158.

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