Robert Kubica’s early morning fastest lap remained unbeaten through Wednesday afternoon, meaning the Alfa Romeo driver topped the times for Day 1.

Robert Kubica was at the wheel of the Alfa Romeo C39 for Wednesday morning’s track time as testing resumed at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona. The Polish reserve driver did a 1:16.942 on the C5 Soft compound tyre midway through the morning session, reaching the lunchtime break as fastest man. He did 53 laps in total.

Handing over the Alfa Romeo to race driver Kimi Raikkonen, Kubica nonetheless held on to top spot at the end of the day as the teams all switched their focus to long runs in the afternoon. Kimi Raikkonen spent his afternoon on harder compound tyres, winding up P18 of nineteen runners for the day, having put in 50 laps by close of play.

It was a similar situation through most of the field, with nine of the ten teams swapping over their drivers at lunchtime. Max Verstappen took over the Red Bull RB16 from teammate Alex Albon at lunchtime, and did run the C4 tyre to end up P2 with a 1:17.347 at the chequered flag and a lap total of 83. However, he brought out the red flags right at the end of the day as he spun off at Turn 10.

Sergio Perez was another afternoon-only driver, ending up P3 in his Racing Point and covering 84 laps with a best time of 1:17.428.

P4 was Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat, who also ended up bringing out the red flags nearly simultaneously with Verstappen as he spun approaching Turn 9. The double stoppage so close to the chequered flag resulted in the session stopping a few minutes early, without being restarted.

The other Alpha Tauri of Pierre Gasly was P5, after driving during the morning, with Alex Albon’s Red Bull in P6. Both lost significant time during the morning, due to a suspension issue on Albon’s car and a loose pipe on Gasly’s.

Lewis Hamilton was P7 for Mercedes after driving for the morning, with Lance Stroll P8 for Racing Point.

Click here for the complete results from Test 2 – Day 1.

Developing report.