Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen set the pace as Formula 1 pre-season testing concluded at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday.
Räikkönen registered a lap of 1:17.221 on the pink-banded Hypersoft tyres, fractionally behind the unofficially track record posted by team-mate Sebastian Vettel on Thursday.
Räikkönen’s time was 0.565s clear of a surprisingly fast Fernando Alonso in the McLaren, also on the pink banded Hypersoft tyres. A late last gasp dash momentarily put him ahead of Räikkönen before the lap time was disallowed due to the Spaniard cutting the chicane.
Earlier Alonso had crawled to a halt at Turn 7 after just six laps during the first hour of running and a turbo problem was diagnosed, triggering an engine change, which took four hours…
Renault, meanwhile, endured its first major setback as a suspected gearbox problem consigned Carlos Sainz Jr. to the garage for much of the day, as he completed limited running. Despite this, he came out charging on the ubiquitous Hypersofts to set a lap time just seven tenths of a second slower than the Ferrari, good enough for third fastest on the day…
Ricciardo meanwhile had been concentrating on long runs during the afternoon and bolted on a set of Supersofts to charge into fourth place in the standings, 1.106s slower than Kimi, after languishing at the back end of the time all afternoon.
Haas’ Romain Grosjean was up next in fifth, having set his quickest lap on the Ultrasoft tyres, just 0.085s behind Ricciardo. Haas have clearly made gains during the Winter and Grosjean’s pace has shown this improvement all week.
Valtteri Bottas was up next in sixth in the Mercedes W09 more than 1.5s off the pace but he was running Medium white rubber so fast lap times were not the Brackley squad’s menu during the afternoon session.
Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley accumulated more encouraging mileage for Toro Rosso as he took seventh with a 1:18.949, fractionally (0.028s) ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon, both drivers running the pink Hypersofts!
Sauber’s Charles Leclerc seemed to get into the swing of things and put the new Alfa Romeo backed Sauber into ninth place, having suffered a setback when he spun off at Turn 11, making contact with the barrier in the process.
Williams’ Sergey Sirotkin was up next rounding out the top ten in the Williams FW41 on a set of Soft rubber just 0.071s behind the Sauber.
Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton concluded his pre-season preparations with a race simulation and a healthy haul of 97 laps in the morning, before handing over to Bottas.
Bringing up the rear was the Williams of Lance Stroll who too had been running race simulations, after development driver Robert Kubica graciously opted to shelve his planned run, in order to boost the Canadian’s prospects. Despite this, Stroll’s time was 1:19.954s on Softs, some 2.7s off the ultimate pace for the day.
And with that the pre-season is over and we now have just two weeks before the cars line up in Melbourne for the first round of the 2018 FIA Formula 1 World Championship!
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Tyre | Laps |
| 1 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:17.221 |  |
157 | |
| 2 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:17.784 | 0.563 | |
93 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Renault | 1:18.092 | 0.871 | |
45 |
| 4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:18.327 | 1.106 |  |
92 |
| 5 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:18.412 | 1.191 |  |
181 |
| 6 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:18.852 | 1.631 |  |
104 |
| 7 | Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1:18.949 | 1.728 | |
156 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1:18.967 | 1.746 | |
163 |
| 9 | Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1:19.118 | 1.897 | |
75 |
| 10 | Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1:19.189 | 1.968 |  |
105 |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:19.464 | 2.243 | |
97 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Williams | 1:19.954 | 2.733 | |
27 |
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