Lewis Hamilton finished fastest for Mercedes on a busy fourth and final day of the opening Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona.
Following Wednesday’s snow which effectively made the third day of testing a write-off, teams playing catch-up on Thursday recorded significant mileage with a total of 15 drivers running as numerous teams opted for split programmes.
Drivers running in the morning were faced with a damp but drying track, with slick tyres only becoming viable just before midday. Those running in the afternoon enjoyed the best conditions.
This was most obvious at Mercedes. Valtteri Bottas, who completed 60 laps in the morning, finished an eventual 12th on the timesheet. He handed over to Hamilton in the afternoon.
The reigning world champion clocked 69 laps en route to the top of the timesheet – a 1m19.333s set on medium tyres proving to be the fastest time of the day. Prior to his Thursday mileage, Hamilton had only managed 25 laps.
Stoffel Vandoorne ended the day second, as McLaren delivered a promising day. Vandoorne’s 1m19.854s was set on the hyper-soft tyre. More impressive was his 110 lap total amassed before Fernando Alonso added another 51 laps during the final three hours. The Spaniard finished fifth.
Sebastian Vettel spent a full day behind the wheel, as he posted the third fastest time for Ferrari. It was a productive day for the team in which Vettel was one of three drivers to surpass 100 laps.
Conversely, Red Bull had a difficult day. Max Verstappen finished ninth on the timesheet, completing just 35 laps. The team did not run during the morning’s damp conditions. A late trip to the gravel at the long Turn 12 with less than two hours left of the session further truncated Red Bull’s day.
Kevin Magnussen ended the day fourth for Haas, while Carlos Sainz Jr was sixth after taking over from Nico Hulkenberg at the session’s halfway mark. Hulkenberg finished 11th.
Sergio Perez experienced the VJM11 Force India for the first time, racking up 65 laps and finishing eighth on the timesheet.
Toro Rosso’s reliable week continued, with Pierre Gasly spending a full day in the car and recording the highest mileage of the day for a single driver en route to 10th. With 324 laps recorded across the week, Toro Rosso has completed more mileage than any other team as it develops an understanding of its new Honda power supply.
Sauber’s duo of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson finished 13th and 14th. Ericsson spun at Turn 2 during the morning’s damp conditions – beached in the gravel trap, he triggered the day’s first of three red flags.
Sergey Sirotkin propped up the timesheet, having not set a time on slick tyres before handing over to Lance Stroll in the afternoon. Stroll finished seventh for Williams.
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