Barcelona Testing – Kimi Raikkonen was fastest on the final day of the first pre-season test with a time of 1:20.872.
The track was soaked before the morning session, and again during the lunch break, to allow further testing on the wet and intermediate tyre, and to see how each tyre behaves during the crossover points between the compounds.
The wet-to-dry nature of the day meant running was largely done on the soft tyre, so Valtteri Bottas’ 1:19.705 from Wednesday remains the fastest time of testing so far.
Drivers first ventured out on the full wet tyre on which Raikkonen had a spin at Turn 13, just keeping his Ferrari out of the barriers.
The intermediates were quickly brought out as the track rapidly dried, with slick tyres being put before the end of the morning session.
Despite the track being dampened again during the lunch break, the majority of the afternoon running took place on slick tyres.
Several teams hit trouble as the first test came to a close. Williams did not take part as their chassis was damaged during Lance Stroll’s crash on Wednesday.
Also missing out was Lewis Hamilton, who was kept in the garage all morning by an electrical fault.
The decision was taken for Hamilton to sit out the day as there was little time left in the session when the issue was fixed. Instead, Bottas completed some installation laps in preparation for his afternoon run.
The Finn was eighth by the end of the session, clocking 68 laps.
Toro Rosso completed only a single lap throughout the whole day. After Daniil Kvyat completed his installation lap at the beginning of the day his STR12 needed a complete power unit change.
Carlos Sainz Jr. was due to run in the afternoon session, but further issues kept him in the garage as well.
At the senior Red Bull team, however, Max Verstappen was second in the session, but was hampered slightly by an exhaust issue; the same problem that cost team mate Daniel Ricciardo suffered on Wednesday.
Renault had a strong morning with Nico Hulkenberg, clocking 51 laps, but had problems with Jolyon Palmer who only made his first appearance of the day halfway through the morning session.
The Brit salvaged 39 laps and was third at the end of the day, setting his best time on the soft tyre; the same as Verstappen and Raikkonen ahead of him.
Haas completed a century of laps for the second time this week with Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman was fourth quickest in the session thanks to a late charge on the supersoft tyre.
Antonio Giovinazzi did his personal best time of testing with a 1:22.401 on the ultrasoft tyre to go fifth. It will be confirmed shortly if his services will continue to be requested by Sauber to stand in for the injured Pascal Wehrlein.
Sergio Perez was sixth for Force India, managing 82 laps ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne who set McLaren’s fastest time of testing. The Belgian did a 1:22.576 on the ultrasoft tyre and, with 65 laps on the board, almost matched their best mileage of the test after a troubled start to the week.
The second pre-season test starts on March 7 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
To see the results from the session, click here.
