Kvyat quickest on Day 3 in Barcelona as Williams join testing

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat put in a superb late quick lap of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catlunya to run quickest on the penultimate day of the first Formula 1 pre-season test of 2019.

With less than 15 minutes left in the session, the Russian driver bolted on a set of the softest Pirelli compound on offer this season, the C5, and delivered a lap of 1:17.704s to edge Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Räikkönen by 0.058s. The Finn had held top spot since the morning session after setting a time of 1:17.762 on the C4 tyres half an hour before the lunch break.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo attempted to get in on the late-flyer action and the Australian driver rose to third place in the order with a late lap of 1:18.164 set on the C4 tyre.

After two days of quiet in the Williams garage, the teams new car finally took to the track in the afternoon, with 2018 FIA Formula 2 champion George Russell putting 23 laps on the board as the team’s heavily delayed start to the campaign at last got underway.

With the top three spots occupied by driver using tyres from the softer end of Pirelli’s spectrum fourth place on the day went to day one’s quickest man, Sebastian Vettel. The German driver focused on longer runs and set his quickest time of the day in the morning, using the C3 tyre. Vettel logged a total of 134 laps during his final day of test one.

Vettel was followed by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver also broke through the century of laps barrier, touring the Barcelona track 109 times on his way to a best time of 1:18.787. He too focused on the C3 tyre.

Nico Hulkenberg, who drove for Renault in the morning session claimed sixth place ahead of Romain Grosjean’s Haas.

The US team had another difficult day and Grosjean and reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi stopped three times across the course of the day. The final stoppage brought out the red flags late in the afternoon denying teams the final four minutes of running.

Fittipaldi ended the day in P8 behind his team-mate but ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz who opted out of the late quick lap the team put in over the first two days of testing. Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Racing Point.

Mercedes had another quiet day in terms of lap time with Valtteri Bottas 11thahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton but the pair combined posted the highest number of laps at 182. Russell’s 1:25.625, just under eight seconds off Kvyat’s pace, left him at the bottom of the order.