Barcelona Day 6: Bottas breaks record as Alonso suffers

Mercedes driver Valtteri Bottas set a new fastest time of the Formula 1 pre-season test in Barcelona, scorching around Circuit de Catalunya in a lap time of 1:19.310 to top the standings at the end of the morning session.

Bottas improved on his own best time, set last week, by over a quarter of a second using the Pirelli Super Soft tyre compound, and was three seconds faster than the best times set last year at the same venue during testing.

The Finn. setting well into his new team, completed 70 laps during his stint in the car which he will hand over to teammate Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon shift in Barcelona.

Felipe Massa and Williams continued to impress with the second best time, 0.110 of a second down on the top time albeit on Ultra Soft tyres. The veteran Brazilian will hand over the FW40 to his 18 year old teammate Lance Stroll for the afternoon stanza.

Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest, but the team reported that he "spent time in garage for fluid systems check" and as a result the veteran Finn was limited to 39 laps on Soft tyres.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fourth fastest, also on Softs, with a modest 34 laps on his chart by lunch time.

Fifth fastest was Renault 'new boy' Nico Hulkenberg enjoying a welcome hassle free morning, for the French team, in which he racked up 61 laps. He will hand over the car to teammate Jolyon Palmer for the afternoon.

The ongoing big story of the second test is no doubt the struggles of McLaren-Honda, and the morning of day six was hardly encouraging for the beleaguered outfit.

With Fernando Alonso on duty in the cockpit of the MCL32, he started the day by doing countless installation before setting lap times of which his best was over 3.5 seconds down on Bottas' best.

At close of the morning session Alonso was slowest of all, with the least mileage covered during the first four hours of the day.