Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat pulled a surprise topping the time-sheets in day three of F1 Pre-Season Testing at the Circuit De Barcelona-Catalunya, setting the quickest time of all so far.

 

 

The Russian’s best effort came with 15 minutes remaining in the afternoon session, pipping Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen who had the benchmark for most of the day. Kvyat’s time was a 1:17.704 and 137 laps on the board.

 

“We lacked some running on Day 1, so we definitely bounced back today,” said Kvyat as he reflected on the day. “It was important for us to do as many laps as possible and complete the programme,”

 

“We managed to do so and we even managed to squeeze in some extra kilometres, which made it a very productive day. The guys in the garage should be happy with the job they’ve done, we need to continue this high level of work to get as much mileage as possible and gain confidence together,”

 

“I’m comfortable with the car and every time I’m on track I have a better feeling of what the car will do, which is nice. As a team we always want to do more, so if we had the chance to do 200 laps I would take it, even if my neck probably wouldn’t enjoy it! Now it’s important to go on working hard, without getting caught up with where we finished on the timesheets – even if it’s quite pleasant to end up where we did. We need to keep focussing on the job we’re doing with the car and make sure we’re heading in the right direction. It’s early days, but a good start is always welcome.” Kvyat concluded.

 

 

Raikkonen ended the day second and clocked up the most laps in the day with 138 but the Finn said there was no attempt to post the best time.

 

“We haven’t done any qualifying laps, we just ran with different tyres,” explained Raikkonen. “But I think generally, it’s a well-balanced car and it has pretty good grip. Once we start pushing we’ll see where we get,”

 

“I guess it can always be better and, anyway, we’re not really pushing too much. We’re just trying things, but yes, it was fun. It has been good. Obviously, we always want more, but that’s the normal, never ending story. It has been some pretty decent two days as we’re learning things but we still need to learn more. So far it’s okay.”

 

“It’s impossible to say [where Alfa Romeo will be] from testing. Maybe we’ll get some idea from next week but, for sure, in two or three weeks, whenever the first race is, we’ll find out. I think from our side we’ve been pretty happy, but where we’re going to end up in the first race, we have no idea,”

 

“I think we’ve been quite pleased with how the car is feeling, so far, we’ve done a lot of running, which is always a good thing but it’s very early days and we’re still learning,” Raikkonen concluded.

 

 

In third place was Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian posted the best lap for the team so far with a 1:18.164 and clocked up 80 laps.

 

“I’m happy to get some solid laps in today with come consistent running,” said Ricciardo. “It’s a positive as we’ve been lacking that rhythm in the car over the last few days,”

 

“We tried three different compounds of tyre so that was also good to go through and understand. I’m keen to get stuck into it to see where wen can keep improving,”

 

“The main thing was driving 80 laps, that was really important and all I can ask for today.” Ricciardo concluded.

 

 

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel who topped the day first day of testing, finished fourth while completing 134 laps. The German was well focused on completing the team’s planned programme for the day, which included setup and tyre evaluation as well as simulating various stages of the race.

 

“It was good to be back in the car today and put some more mileage under my belt,” said Vettel. “Again, we had a busy day and managed to complete our programme, which included a few new items, compared to Monday. We tried a few things around also focusing on set-up and I can only confirm the positive impression I had on day one. Having now put 303 laps in the bag I feel comfortable to say we are satisfied with how the car is progressing.”

 

 

Max Verstappen took his Honda-powered Red Bull RB15 to fifth place as the Dutchman posted a 1:18.787 and ran 109 laps.

 

“I think today was really positive,” explained Verstappen as he looked back on day three. “Whenever you do more than 100 laps at a test, that’s a good day,”

 

“I’m happy with the way we’re working together with Honda so far, it’s very focused and everybody knows their job. What’s most important is that we have completed a lot of laps and investigated many set-up changes. With different regulations, you have to understand what direction to go in and that’s exactly what we’re doing,”

 

“So far, it’s difficult to judge where we are compared to the other teams – we’ll find that out in Melbourne – but at the moment the car feels good.” Verstappen concluded.

 

 

Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was sixth fastest for the Anglo-French outfit as he ran in the R.S.19 challenger in the morning. The German clocked up 63 laps and set a 1:18.800.

 

“It was another productive session in the car this morning,” said Hulkenberg. “We had a look at longer based runs to assess different setups and aero parts,”

 

“We ran without DRS, but it was still good to further my understanding in the new car. It’s been a busy week so far, lots of laps driven, but that’s what testing is all about,”

 

“We have more to learn, more to develop, but I’m enjoying it and I’m aiming for a good day tomorrow to round off a busy week.” Hulkenberg concluded.

 

Romain Grosjean drove his Rich Energy Haas F1 Team VF-19 to seventh place on the third day, but the Frenchman suffered an ignition coil and electrical issue causing two of the three red flags. Grosjean’s time was a 1:19.249 and he completed 69 laps on the mileage charts.

 

“It’s not been a bad day to be fair,” explained Grosjean reflecting on his afternoon run. “Yes, we came back a couple of times on the flatbed truck having had to stop the car on track, but that’s part of testing, it’s finding out what the limitations are, and what we can do better on the car,”

 

“It’s not ideal, and we’d like to do more mileage, but the more we drive, the more we find the car is getting better. The feeling in the car is good. Positive steps have been made since I ran on Monday, and I was already happy then, I’m even happier now. We’re getting there. I’m quite pleased with all the work that’s been done.” Grosjean concluded.

 

 

In eighth place behind his French colleague, morning runner for Haas Pietro Fittipaldi ended the day eighth quickest with the American-Brazilian youngster completing 48 laps and posting a 1:19.249. Fittipaldi however, suffered an ignition coil issue and stopped out on track bringing out the first red flag for the day. but it did not hamper his spirits.

 

“It was a really productive morning, we ran a lot of laps, which is the most important thing in the first week of testing,” said Fittipaldi. “We went through a big run-plan to test a lot of things on the car,”

 

“We found some interesting things. It was good for me to get back into the car. Last year in Abu Dhabi, I didn’t get a full day in, but I felt like I adapted quickly. Running that little bit yesterday was also very helpful. It was like a shakedown,”

 

“We had to adjust the pedals after Tuesday’s run, so it was good that it could be done overnight, we didn’t lose any time today doing that. I’m happy with my run, the pace was decent, but more importantly, we ran a lot of miles.” Fittipaldi concluded.

 

 

Carlos Sainz ended the third day of pre-season testing in ninth place for McLaren with the Spaniard working on longer runs after spending most of the morning in the garage making setup changes.

 

“Today was a bit more of a challenging day as we made a few changes on the car overnight, which delayed our start while we finished preparing everything,” explained Sainz. “However, we still managed to complete almost a race distance, and we’ve already seen the benefits from that in the information we’ve gathered,”

 

“We picked up valuable data from the longer runs especially, and now we hope we can continue with some smooth running for Lando tomorrow on the final day.” Sainz concluded.

 

 

SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team’s Sergio Perez completed the top ten in his RP19 racer. The Mexican posted a 1:20.102 and completed a total of 67 laps in mileage.

 

“We made good progress today and I feel we took another step forward,” said Perez as reflected on day three. “The day was a bit shorter than we expected because we had a small issue with the car late in the afternoon,”

 

“I lost drive but was able to recover to the pits. So we couldn’t complete all of our programme, but I feel we’re still improving as we get to know the car. I’ve done two days in the car now and I’m generally feeling happy. The balance was good from day one and that’s important. I’m not testing again until next week, but if we keep working like this I will be happy with my preparations for Melbourne.” Perez concluded.

 

 

Mercedes continued to hover near the bottom of the time-sheets during F1’s Pre-Season test and it was Valtteri Bottas who finished the day in 11th as the Silver Arrows continued it’s main focus on reliability and gaining aerodynamic data.

 

“Similar to the last two days, we did some more aero measurements in the morning,” said Bottas. “After that we completed a full race distance for the first time in the new car, 66 laps in a row without any issues. We’re learning more and more about the W10 and it again felt better than the day before. There’s still room for improvement, but we’re making progress every day.”

 

 

Reigning Champion Lewis Hamilton was 12th quickest in his W10 and like his Finnish team-mate worked on full race distance running as well as gathering aerodynamic data and performing system checks. The Briton clocked up 94 laps on the mileage charts.

 

“We got a lot of mileage in again today, both Valtteri and myself completed a whole race distance, so it’s been a good day for reliability,” explained Hamilton, “We have been digging deep, trying to understand the car, pretty much the same as the beginning of every year. I love that challenge of coming back each year; getting into a new car is like meeting someone new – you don’t know the good and bad and the journey you go on with that car is a real privileged position,”

 

“It’s crazy to think this is my seventh season with the team, and this looks like it is going to be the most challenging year of our partnership so I’m super excited. I love racing so nothing really changes there.” Hamilton concluded.

 

 

ROKiT Williams Racing finally made it to the track after a series of delays, which saw them miss two days of testing. FIA Formula 2 Champion and new signing George Russell got behind the wheel of the Mercedes-powered FW42, running 23 laps and posting a 1:25.625.

 

It was amazing to finally drive the FW42,” explained a relieved Russell. “Today we focused purely on install laps, shaking the car down and data gathering. Our focus was not on performance runs so I can’t judge the overall potential of the car, but I’m excited that we will get a full day of running tomorrow.”

 

Formula 1 2019 Pre-Season Testing Day Three Classification

 

 

Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing Day Four Driver Lineups

 

The final day of the first pre-season testing week begins in a couple of hours and here are the drivers that will take part today:

 

Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport F1 W10 EQ Power+: Lewis Hamilton (Morning) / Valtteri Bottas (Afternoon).

Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow SF90: Charles Leclerc.

Aston Martin Red Bull Racing RB15: Pierre Gasly.

Renault F1 Team R.S.19: Daniel Ricciardo (Morning) / Nico Hulkenberg (Afternoon).

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team VF-18: Kevin Magnussen.

McLaren-Renault F1 Team MCL34: Lando Norris.

SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team RP19: Lance Stroll.

Alfa Romeo Racing C38: Antonio Giovinazzi.

Scuderia Toro Rosso STR14: Alexander Albon.

ROKiT Williams Racing FW42: Robert Kubica (Morning) / George Russell (Afternoon).