Back to the top for Ferrari as first Barcelona test ends - Kimi Räikkönen sets the pace on final test day this week
Published by Christine
Kimi Räikkönen soared back to the top of the timesheets on the final day of testing in Barcelona this week. The Finn set his time on the ultrasoft tyres, and helped Ferrari finish three of the four days with the fastest time. Meanwhile, Mercedes continued to concentrate on getting the lap count up, with Lewis Hamilton completing 99 laps before handing over to Nico Rosberg to total 185 altogether.
At the other end of the spectrum, McLaren suffered a setback today when Fernando Alonso completed three installation laps and no lap time before developing a coolant leak that kept the car in the garage for the rest of the day. Daniil Kvyat finished second overall, which is a step forward for Red Bull after they solved an issue they've been dealing with previously in the week.
Overnight we found a solution to the niggle that affected us over the past two days and that enabled us to run pretty faultlessly today. It also meant that Dany was able to make up for the time lost yesterday. We focused on short runs, which is why the lap total is not that significant, as you obviously have to bring the car in more regularly and that delays things, but overall we’re happy with the amount of work we got through today.
- Guillaume Rocquelin, Head of race engineering, Red Bull
Kevin Magnussen set the driver record for number of laps completed today, circling the track 153 times for Renault. He did, however, bring out a red flag towards the very end of the session by stopping out on track. He wasn't alone, Rio Haryanto crashed after completing 51 laps and halted the session.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | K Räikkönen | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:23.477 | 80 |
| 2 | D Kvyat | Red Bull Racing | 1:24.293 | 96 |
| 3 | A Celis | Sahara Force India F1 Team | 1:24.840 | 75 |
| 4 | K Magnussen | Renault Sport F1 Team | 1:25.263 | 153 |
| 5 | M Verstappen | Scuderia Toro Rosso | 1:25.393 | 110 |
| 6 | F Nasr | Sauber F1 Team | 1:26.053 | 121 |
| 7 | N Rosberg | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:26.187 | 86 |
| 8 | L Hamilton | Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team | 1:26.295 | 99 |
| 9 | F Massa | Williams Martini Racing | 1:26.483 | 54 |
| 10 | E Gutiérrez | Haas F1 Team | 1:27.802 | 89 |
| 11 | R Haryanto | Manor Racing MRT | 1:28.266 | 51 |
| 12 | F Alonso | McLaren Honda F1 Team | No time | 3 |
Thanks to McLaren's issues today, it's interesting to note that Haas have managed to complete more laps than the more established team. Not bad for a new outfit.
Too bad the day ended. Can’t get enough of driving my new car!
Max33Verstappen
#F1 drivers covered more than 19,000km at #F1Testing this week - enough to travel almost halfway around the world
Pleased to confirm that @RHaryantoracing is now back in the garage following his earlier spin and he is fine.
Massive frustration for @McLarenF1 this week - a hydraulic leak yesterday, a coolant leak today, problems that take hours to fix
That's it for this week, the testing wraps up for now and teams get to go away and peruse their results. Next week will see four more days of testing in Barcelona, starting on Tuesday and running through to Friday.
