Early morning Carlos Sainz lap remains unbeaten throughout day two of the final Formula 1 preseason test of 2019

Carlos Sainz ensured McLaren stayed on top of the second preseason Formula 1 test at Barcelona for the second day in a row.

Sainz headed the timing screens with a 1min 18.878sec lap set on his first timed run. He then whittled down his best to a 1min 17.144sec, the fastest time of testing so far, set on C4 compound tyres just over an hour into the session.

This mark remained unbeaten for the rest of the day and followed Sainz’s McLaren team-mate Lando Norris being quickest yesterday despite twice stopping on track.

Sainz’s mark for most of the day was over a second quicker than the next best. A late Sergio Pérez improvement got the Racing Point man second in the order, seven tenths off Sainz’s mark, with a 1min 17.842sec set on C4 tyres.

Ferrari’s seamless preseason was interrupted with Sebastian Vettel burying his car in the barriers two hours into the session, losing the team several hours of running. Ferrari said the crash was due to a mechanical failure while Vettel reported that he felt there was an issue on the front-left of the car.

Before that, Vettel set the third-fastest time of the day: a 1min 18.195sec on C3 Pirellis.

Vettel had been due to hand over the car to Charles Leclerc in the afternoon, but there was only time for Leclerc to do an outlap with minutes of the session to go.

Kimi Räikkönen was another to improve in the final hour and his 1min 18.209sec set on C4 tyres got him fourth. Haas’ Romain Grosjean also jumped up the order late on, with a 1min 18.330sec on the softest C5 Pirellis

Grosjean pipped Max Verstappen, who was sixth for Red Bull with a best of 1min 18.395sec on C3 rubber. Daniil Kvyat was seventh for Toro Rosso with a 1min 18.682sec on the C3 compound.

Mercedes had a more encouraging day after yesterday’s problems. Valtteri Bottas completed 75 laps in the morning, more than anyone else in that session, with his best – 1min 18.941sec good enough to end the day – eighth fastest.

Lewis Hamilton took over in the afternoon and all but match his team-mate’s time on the same rubber – setting a 1min 18.943sec to finish the day ninth.

Nico Hülkenberg placed 10^th in the final order with a 1min 19.056sec fastest lap set on C3 rubber. His team-mate Daniel Ricciardo concentrated on race runs in the morning session and ended the day last with a 1min 22.597sec

Robert Kubica continued Williams’ slow recovery from its truncated opening test last week, completing 129 laps and finishing the day 11^th overall with a best of 1min 19.367sec set on C4 tyres.

2019 F1 PRESEASON TESTING TIMES: TEST 2, DAY 2