Barcelona Day 3 round-up: Hamilton makes his mark with fastest time of weekend

The Red Bulls ultimately weren’t quite in same orbit in terms of lap time as Mercedes. Perez’s 1min 19.556sec was good enough for third, whilst Verstappen was exactly two tenths further back, but testing has never been a reliable indicator of the true competitive order, with teams running individual programmes. The drivers completed 133 laps between them; short of the 160 achieved by Mercedes.

Sebastian Vettel was the cause of one of five red flags which came out in the morning, but before that he posted a time which would eventually leave him fifth in the running order – his time was a 1min 19.824sec. He completed 48 laps before his car caught fire on the track due to an oil leak. It wouldn’t reappear and Aston began packing up early.

Seven thousandths behind the German was Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. He managed 44 tours in a morning’s running. His team-mate Sainz did even better enjoying a highly productive afternoon of 92 laps, just 0.25sec behind.

Another with an impressive lap tally was Alex Albon. His Williams showed good reliability to match Hamilton in clocking 94 circuits with a final time of 1min 20.318sec, with team-mate Nicholas Latifi going 0.35sec slower.

Next was the McLaren pair: Daniel Ricciardo recorded a 1min 20.790sec and Lando Norris a 1min 20.827sec. Though perhaps showing a more subdued pace, a total of 85 and 52 laps respectively was impressive and Ricciardo made the most of the wet circuit; leaving the pitlane as soon as the afternoon session began.

A hydraulic issue caused a dramatic fire for Fernando Alonso during the stop-start morning session which ended after 14 tours of Circuit de Cataluyna. His time of 1min 21.242sec left him 12th at the end of the day and, like Aston Martin, the team lost the afternoon session.

Guanyu Zhou was another with an action-packed morning. The Chinese driver went off early on, only to stop on the pit straight with an issue almost as soon as he went back out. A 1min 21.939sec was his best effort.

Pierre Gasly’s day was similar, as he also crashed during the morning before a mechanical issue left Yuki Tsunoda unable to have his turn in the afternoon. 1min 22.469sec meant 14th on the timesheets.

Nikita Mazepin’s position at Haas looks under threat after the team stripped its car of the branding from title sponsor Uralkali, which is owned by his Russian oligarch father. Team boss Guenther Steiner said that the decision was a mark of respect following the invasion of Ukraine. Mazepin only managed nine laps in the white-liveried car before a leak curtailed his and the team’s day. His best lap was 7sec slower than Hamilton’s.

Coming in a sorry last was Valtteri Bottas. At lunchtime, he said that the team needed more running after a difficult first two days. The Finn managed just 10 laps in the troublesome new Alfa Romeo and a time of 1min 30.433sec was all he mustered.