Hamilton Returns to the Top as Pre-Season Testing Day 3 Comes to a Close

The third and final day of pre-season testing in Barcelona has come to an end, following multiple red flags and a truck dumping water all over the track in order for teams to simulate wet weather conditions on a crucial day of data collection.

Today saw Lewis Hamilton and George Russell top the time sheets today for Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. It was a strong day for the seven-time world champion, who clocked 94 laps in the afternoon session and set the fastest time of 1:19.138 – just under a tenth quicker than his teammate in the morning session.

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen would set the third and fourth fastest times of the day respectively, with a collective 133 laps added to Oracle Red Bull Racing’s total. They found themselves around half a second behind the fastest time that Hamilton set in the afternoon.

Sebastian Vettel found himself in fifth place at the end of the day, though an issue with his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team in the morning session saw him pull over and bring out the red flag. Aston Martin claimed the issue turned out to be an oil leak, which caused a fire in the German’s car; this saw the British team halt running for the rest of the day.

Ferrari would lock out fifth and sixth place in the standings after putting in a mighty 136 laps for the session. The session was drama free for Ferrari, as they end the week with 440 laps of practice.

Alex Albon and Nicolas Latifi would follow the Ferraris, finishing in eighth and ninth respectively. With 107 laps completed today, it has been a good day for Williams Racing as they end the week with their eyes on the top 10 this season.

The McLaren F1 Team cars continued the back-to-back theme, with Daniel Ricciardo finishing in tenth place with a strong 86 laps in today’s session, while Lando Norris finished in eleventh with 52 laps.

It wasn’t a great day for Fernando Alonso, as he came to a stop and brought the red flags out after just 12 laps of running. BWT Alpine F1 Team confirmed that a failure with the hydraulics caused by a ‘minor sealing issue’, and taking the A522 off the track for the rest of the day.

Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN‘s Guanyu Zhou finished the session in thirteeth place and clocked 41 laps as the only rookie in this year’s F1 season, though it wasn’t without issue, as he would bring out the red flag in the morning session after what many believe was a spin. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas would end the day in sixteenth and last place with 10 laps.

Pierre Gasly set 40 laps in today’s session and would finish in 14th place, though an impact with the wall saw the session get stopped and Scuderia AlphaTauri have to repair damage to the front of the car. Thankfully the Frenchman was okay.

Finally, Nikita Mazepin finished in 15th place in what was a strange day for Haas F1 Team. As a result of the current circumstances in Ukraine, Haas opted to remove all Uralkali logos and colours from the car; seeing the signature white, blue and red front wing be replaced with a black one. It was also confirmed during the first session that F1 would suspend planning for the Russian Grand Prix later this year.

FIA Formula 1 World Championship – Pre-season testing – Barcelona – Day 3/3 Results

POS	NO.	DRIVER	NAT	TEAM	TIME	GAP	LAPS
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team	1:19.138		94
2	63	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team	1:19.233	+0.095	66
3	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:19.556	+0.418	74
4	1	Max Verstappen	NED	Oracle Red Bull Racing	1:19.756	+0.618	59
5	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team	1:19.824	+0.686	48
6	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:19.831	+0.693	44
7	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:20.072	+0.934	92
8	23	Alex Albon	THA	Williams Racing	1:20.318	+1.180	94
9	6	Nicolas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:20.699	+1.561	13
10	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren	1:20.790	+1.652	86
11	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren	1:20.827	+1.689	52
12	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	BWT Alpine F1 Team	1:21.242	+2.104	12
13	24	Guanyu Zhou	CHN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	1:21.939	+2.801	41
14	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri	1:22.469	+3.331	40
15	9	Nikita Mazepin	RUS	Haas F1 Team	1:26.229	+7.091	9
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN	1:30.433	+11.295	10

Pre-season testing, day 3 results.