F1 Testing 2019: Day 4 Report

Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest lap on a day of limited running for Renault, while Antonio Giovinazzi and Alfa Romeo completed the most laps. Here are all the talking points from the fourth day of Winter Testing!

Taking part in today’s session were Antonio Giovinazzi at Alfa Romeo, Charles Leclerc at Ferrari, Lando Norris at McLaren, Lance Stroll at Racing Point, Pierre Gasly at Red Bull and Alex Albon at Toro Rosso. Haas, Mercedes, Renault and Williams split driving duties for the day. Romain Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell drove in the morning sessions for their respective teams, while Kevin Magnussen, Valtteri Bottas, Nico Hulkenberg and Robert Kubica took over in the afternoon.

This morning saw the coldest conditions so far this week, but temperatures warmed over the morning, eventually reaching the warmest seen all week in the afternoon. The cold conditions caught Lando Norris out, as he caused a red flag by sliding off into the gravel at slow speed in the first hour of running.

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Robert Kubica took to the track for the first time in 2019, with low-speed aero runs making him somewhat of a mobile chicane; most notably nearly being collected by Lewis Hamilton at the final chicane. George Russell took over the Williams seat in the afternoon, but remained in the garage for the first two hours of the session. When he eventually emerged, he was able to lower Williams’ best time to within 1.3 seconds of Racing Point, the second-slowest team of the day.

After yesterday’s problems, Haas had a better day today with no stoppages. Kevin Magnussen went out this afternoon after a headrest and seat issue on Tuesday afternoon forced him to hand the car over to Pietro Fittipaldi. Those issues seemed to have been fixed as the Dane put in over 60 laps this afternoon.

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Alexander Albon was fastest in the morning, meaning Toro Rosso topped the timesheet for a second session in a row. That time was beaten by Nico Hulkenberg in the afternoon, with just over an hour of running remaining. It wasn’t all rosy at Renault though, with the drivers admitting that a number of problems had prevented them from putting in as many laps as they would have liked. After setting the fastest time, Hulkenberg came to a stop on his out-lap, causing the second red flag of the day just an hour before the end of the test.

Antonio Giovinazzi completed the most laps of the day for Alfa Romeo, but caused two red flag periods in the last ten minutes of the day. The team had a relatively trouble-free week up until that point. Every team aside from Renault, Racing Point and Williams completed more than 100 laps today.

WINTER TESTING DAY 4 RESULT:

Testing continues at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya next week. Follow @LightsOutF1Blog on Twitter for live updates!