The final official day of testing for the 2018 season got underway on Wednesday, with eight hours of scheduled run time at the Hungaroring. While there will be Pirelli tyre testing carried out between now and the end of the season, this is the last occasion where all the teams have the option of taking part in an official test. Scuderia Ferrari Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen kept the Maranello team on top of the timesheets as he set the quickest time on Wednesday morning during Formula 1 testing at a hot and dry Hungaroring. Ferrari reserve driver Antonio Giovinazzi headed both sessions on Tuesday and Kimi vaulted to the front early on, before working his way down to a 1:16.171, as he also finished with the most laps under his belt, amassing 69, one short of a full race distance.
Raikkonen’s best lap left him 2.280s quicker than Williams’ Robert Kubica, who returned to action aboard the FW41, a year on from his return to the paddock with Renault. Lando Norris continued testing duties in his role as McLaren’s reserve driver and finished third, three-tenths behind Kubica, and held a similar gap over Sean Gelael.
Gelael switched from the Pirelli-run Toro Rosso STR13 over to the car entered by the team itself, with Brendon Hartley taking over tyre testing duties. Mercedes-backed Formula 2 title leader George Russell was fifth, while Tuesday pacesetter Giovinazzi switched to Sauber’s C37 and placed sixth. GP3 race winner Nikita Mazepin caused the only red flag of the four-hour session when his Force India VJM11 stopped at Turn 11, and he finished seventh on the leaderboard.
Renault test and development driver Artem Markelov had his first experience in a current-spec Formula 1 car and placed eighth, in front of Red Bull simulator driver Jake Dennis. Tyre tester Hartley rounded out the field; Haas is not present at this week’s test.
Formula One testing will resume for a further four hours at 14:00 local time.
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