Kimi Raikkonen in the Ferrari-powered Alfa Romeo set the fastest time of winter testing so far on the morning of day three with a 1:17.762, as Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel ended the morning in second while Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas propped up the order in ninth but ended with the highest lap count.
A lot of data gathering was the first point of call for much of the running, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull ran a variety of sensors to begin the day gathering aerodynamic data rather than set fast times out of the gate. Sebastian Vettel got back on it after the initial runs and put Ferrari top of the timing sheets, a familiar sight as testing goes on. His 1:18.614 on the C2 compound, the hard tyre compound for 2019, on a cold track turning heads up and down the pitlane.
Kimi Raikkonen set the quickest time of testing so far with a 1:17.762s. His time puts last years fastest times in sight but was set on the C4 compound tyre, this season’s soft compound. The test’s previous best time was Sebastian Vettel’s 1:18.161, but just to stress, Raikkonen’s time was set on the C4 compound, which translates as a step softer than Vettel’s. The German driver completeed the equivalent of a full race distance for long-running Ferrari in the morning session and will resume the scheduled programme in the afternoon, after one hour break.
Results (Classification) (1:00pm):
Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo 1:17.762 (C4) 64 Laps
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:18.350 (C2) 80 Laps
Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:18.800 63 Laps
Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:18.897 47 Laps
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:18.899 (C3) 33 Laps
Pietro Fittipaldi Haas 1:19.249 (C4) 48 Laps
Carlos Sainz McLaren 1:19.354 27 Laps
Sergio Perez Racing Point 1:20.102 (C3) 43 Laps
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:20.693 (C3) 88 Laps
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