Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel obliterated the unofficial track record at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Thursday morning as he comfortably led the way.
Vettel carried out a sequence of runs on the Hypersoft tyre, completing a hot lap, followed by a cool-down lap, shortly before the lunch break in fine conditions, becoming the first driver to set times in the 1:17s.
Vettel gradually chipped away at his own benchmark before concluding with a 1:17.182, though did not string all three sectors together on his quickest lap, giving him an ideal lap time of 1:17.026.
Vettel’s best time was almost nine-tenths of a second faster than the previous track record, which was set by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo on Wednesday.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen finished second to Vettel, 1.178s adrift, as he clocked his quickest effort on the red-walled Supersoft tyres.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg, Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne all used Hypersofts to place third, fourth and fifth respectively.
McLaren once again completed the least mileage of any of the teams, as it spent almost two hours in the garage while checking data, though Vandoorne did complete 48 laps, more than he managed across the entirety of Monday’s running.
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson was sixth, while an industrious Valtteri Bottas avoided setting headline-grabbing times as he racked up a session-best 97 laps for Mercedes.
Robert Kubica returned to the cockpit of Williams’ FW40 as part of his development driver duties and placed eighth, completing 73 laps ahead of Force India’s Sergio Perez.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished at the foot of the timesheets but amassed 77 laps, fewer than only Bottas, Vettel (84) and Hulkenberg (79).
Testing will resume at 14:00 local time, with Renault, Mercedes and Williams set to undertake driver changes.
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Tyre |
| 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:17.182 |  |
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| 2 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:18.360 | 1.178 |  |
| 3 | Nico Hulkenberg | Renault | 1:18.675 | 1.493 | |
| 4 | Pierre Gasly | Toro Rosso | 1:18.758 | 1.576 |  |
| 5 | Stoffel Vandoorne | McLaren | 1:18.855 | 1.673 | |
| 6 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:19.244 | 2.062 | |
| 7 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:19.532 | 2.350 |  |
| 8 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 1:19.629 | 2.447 | |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Force India | 1:19.634 | 2.452 | |
| 10 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:19.842 | 2.660 |  |
