BARCELONA, Spain – Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton offered a preview of the likely Formula One title fight during the final day of testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday.
Vettel edged Hamilton by .003 of a second, posting a time of 1:16.221 with his SF90, but had his afternoon session cut short by an electrical issue that caused him to stop on track.
“These past days have been very intensive and interesting. We are still focusing on our car to understand its limits in terms of performance and reliability,” said Ferrari team principal and managing director Mattia Binotto. “Overall, I am pleased with the work we have carried out. I am pleased with how the car behaves and it was well balanced at this track. However, we cannot be completely satisfied at the moment as we would like to be faster and more reliable. So there’s still a lot to do.
“Our (testing) program didn’t always run as smoothly as we would have liked, due to reliability issues and Sebastian’s crash when a wheel rim broke,” Binotto noted. “There are still many issues to be addressed and we must push forward on the performance front. The fact that our car is running properly is a good starting point, but we are still not ready for Melbourne and I’d say it’s a case of a work in progress.”
Vettel turned 110 laps on Friday and Ferrari as a team turned 996 laps during the eight days of testing in Barcelona.
Hamilton’s lap of 1:16.224 on the final day was good enough to put Mercedes in as the runner-up, with the sister W10 of Valtteri Bottas in third at 1:16.561.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was the best of the rest in fourth, with a time of 1:16.843, while Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat completed the top five.
Carlos Sainz’s McLaren landed sixth on the speed charts, ahead of Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean, the second Renault of Daniel Ricciardo, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and the second Haas entry of Kevin Magnussen.
Red Bull was a disappointing 11th to end testing, with Max Verstappen a second and a half off the pace and turning only 29 laps on Friday thanks to a gearbox issue.
The Australian Grand Prix is slated for March 17 at Albert Park Street Circuit in Melbourne.