Sebastian Vettel underlined Ferrari’s pace as he set the quickest time of pre-season testing during the final morning of action at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Ostensibly mirroring the approach taken by Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc on Thursday, Vettel put in a sequence of rapid efforts on Pirelli’s C5 tyre during the build-up to the lunch break.
Vettel worked his way down to a 1:16.221, 0.010s faster than Leclerc’s Thursday benchmark, and just 0.051s behind the track record, set by Lewis Hamilton at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas also used the C5 tyres to post his and Mercedes’ best time of testing, though he wound up 0.340s behind the four-time World Champion.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was third while McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. took fourth, the pair both joining Vettel and Bottas in the 1:16s.
Romain Grosjean made up for Haas’ exhaust-related delay on Thursday by racking up a session-best 73 laps as he classified in fifth position for Haas.
Daniel Ricciardo was sixth for Renault while seventh-placed Kimi Raikkonen caused the only red flag of the session when he halted his Alfa Romeo C38 on the entry to Turn 2.
The stoppage, which occurred with 10 minutes remaining, brought the session to a premature conclusion.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen did not appear for the opening half an hour and completed the least mileage – 29 laps – a day after Pierre Gasly’s sizeable crash at Turn 9.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was ninth while Robert Kubica completed the field for Williams, his best effort 1.2s behind nearest rival Perez.
Formula 1’s final pre-season test session will begin at 14:00 local time.
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
1 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:16.221 | 68 | |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:16.561 | 0.340 | 71 |
3 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:16.898 | 0.677 | 52 |
4 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 1:16.913 | 0.692 | 59 |
5 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:17.076 | 0.855 | 73 |
6 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:17.114 | 0.893 | 52 |
7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1:17.239 | 1.018 | 61 |
8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:17.709 | 1.488 | 29 |
9 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 1:17.791 | 1.570 | 36 |
10 | Robert Kubica | Williams | 1:18.993 | 2.772 | 47 |