Lewis Hamilton leads F1 testing after snow interrupted week in Barcelona

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes has led the fourth day of Formula One testing in Barcelona as the teams made up for lost time caused by bad weather.

It was a busy day at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona on Thursday (NZT Friday) after snowfall and cold temperatures had kept most cars in the garage on Wednesday (NZT Thursday).

Temperatures improved for the final session of the week and teams immediately sent their cars to the track, with Hamilton posting a lap of 1 minute, 19.333 seconds, the best of the week.

The British driver was a half-second faster than Stoffel Vandoorne of McLaren, who had his time on the faster hypersoft tyres.

Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, last year’s runner-up in the drivers’ championship, was third-fastest, nearly a second behind world champion Hamilton.

Pierre Gasly’s Honda-powered Toro Rosso led the lap charts with 147. Vettel was next with 120 laps, followed by Vandoorne’s 110. Hamilton ended the day with 69. New Zealand driver Brendon Hartley did not take the track on day four.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, the only driver to post a time on Wednesday (NZT Thursday), was fifth-fastest after running 51 laps with McLaren. Kevin Magnussen was fourth-fastest with Hass.

The session was stopped briefly in the morning after Marcus Ericsson went off the track in his Sauber. There was another red flag in the afternoon when Max Verstappen went off in a Red Bull.

Drivers still needed wet tyres early in the session, but conditions improved significantly in the afternoon and drivers were able to finish on dry tyres.

Unusually cold weather significantly reduced practice time for the teams this week as the track remained without enough grip for proper runs.

There will be another four-day test session in Barcelona from next Tuesday (NZT Wednesday).

The season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is March 25.

 – AP

Source :Stuff.co.nz

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