SILVERSTONE, Great Britain -- Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen claimed the fastest time of the second day of in-season testing at Silverstone, beating Mercedes' Esteban Ocon in the Mercedes to the best lap by over 0.5s.
Ocon set his time using soft tyres in the morning, but during a peak in track temperature in the afternoon, Ferrari bolted on a set of softs and let Raikkonen off the leash. The resulting time was over 0.2s quicker than his best effort in qualifying at last weekend's British Grand Prix, but would still have left him fifth on the grid behind the Red Bulls.
Pierre Gasly was third fastest on Tuesday in the Red Bull after a late run on soft tyres saw him improve to a 1:31.429 - roughly a second off the qualifying pace of the race drivers on Saturday. The GP2 and Red Bull reserve driver is under evaluation for a Toro Rosso drive next year and spent most of his 103 laps testing medium tyres.
Russian 17-year-old Nikita Mazepin managed to finish third on just his second day of testing in the Force India. The time was set on super-softs, meaning he had a tyre advantage over the drivers around him in the standings, but it was a respectable lap and only 0.2s off Fernando Alonso's best effort on the same tyre compound on Tuesday.
Stoffel Vandoorne was behind the wheel of the McLaren on Wednesday and used a set of soft tyres to go fourth fastest, 1.099s off Raikkonen's best effort. He briefly went out on the ultra-soft compound, which is the fastest tyre in Pirelli's range but also the least suited to the Silverstone circuit, but did not set a time.
Valtteri Bottas was fifth fastest for Williams, setting a time 1.758s off Raikkonen in the afternoon after a morning of long runs running aero tests on the team's new front wing. Williams fitted its double-decker rear wing to the car at the end of the session, which is used to simulate a shift in aero balance but is illegal under the regulations.
Young American Santino Ferrucci was seventh fastest in his second day in the Haas after using soft compound tyres to lower his best lap time to a 1:33.141 over the course of 103 laps. He just beat Renault regular Jolyon Palmer, who set a late personal best before his engine appeared to fail on his return to the pits after the chequered flag.
Red Bull junior Sergio Sette Camara was ninth fastest on his debut in the Toro Rosso, which may well be remembered for a spin on the pit straight after he exited the final corner. GP2 driver Jordan King was tenth fastest in the Manor, 4.3s off Raikkonen's ultimate pace but 1.1s faster than the 2014 Mercedes being run by Pirelli for 2017 development work.
After rain interrupted Pirelli's running on Tuesday, Pascal Wehrlein managed to complete 128 laps of Silverstone on Wednesday with just two brief breaks for a rain shower and a hydraulic leak. Pirelli will now assess the data it gathered over the two days on the 2017 construction materials and compounds it was testing.