Ferrari faster than Mercedes?

Are Ferrari really going to be faster than Mercedes in 2017?

The answer is probably, no, certainly unlikely, but that?s not how the timesheets read after the second day of testing in Barcelona.

Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of the day with a 1minute 20.960s, a time only two hundredths faster than Lewis Hamilton.

However the Finn set his time on soft tyres, whilst Hamilton was on the quicker compound super-softs.

But isn?t known of course would be the fuel loads and the engine settings, were Ferrari giving it everything they had whilst Mercedes were holding back? Or were they true reflective times? We will only know come the opening Grand Prix.

What is clear though is the mileage Mercedes are achieving during this test.

Kimi Raikkonen may well have been the driver to clock up the most laps on day two with 108 laps completed, six laps more than Valterri Bottas, however add on Lewis Hamilton?s 66 laps and Mercedes completed 485.856 miles, whilst Ferrari the second highest team completed 312.336 miles.

That?s on top of the 439.128 miles Mercedes completed on the opening day.

The great hope for the 2017 Formula One World Championship was that Red Bull Racing were going to contest the title with Mercedes.

But as yet, Red Bull have not shown that kind of pace with Max Verstappen 1.217 seconds slower than Lewis Hamilton on day two and Daniel Ricciardo 1.161 seconds slower than Hamilton on day one.

‘We can beat them, We expected them to be quick – we’re still not sure how quick we are or how quick Ferrari are.’ Daniel Ricciardo told Sky Sports.