There were plenty of red flags as the lap times tumbled at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Here are all the statistics from the third day of pre-season testing!
After a relatively trouble-free first two days of pre-season testing, there were four red flag periods on the final day of the week. First, Sebastian Vettel stopped with an engine problem around 90 minutes into the morning session. The SF1000 was not back out on track until the afternoon. Nicholas Latifi was next to stop, bringing out the red flags one hour before the lunch break. He came to a halt on the main straight and did not re-appear on track until the final hour of the day. In the afternoon session, Kevin Magnussen completed only four laps before a puncture brought Haas’ day to a very premature end. Daniel Ricciardo completed more than a race distance in the afternoon before stopping near Turn 9. He was stuck in the garage for much of the rest of the afternoon, but did make it back out on track in the Renault for the final hour.
Mercedes dominated the top of the timesheets, with Valtteri Bottas setting the fastest lap of the test so far – a 1:15.732 on the C5 tyres. It was faster than any time seen in pre-season testing last year and was only 0.326 seconds slower than last year’s pole time for the Spanish Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was second in the standings, but a mistake in the final sector on his hot lap with the C5 tyres meant that he lapped almost eight tenths slower than Bottas.
Best Lap Times
| Driver | Team | Time | Tyre | |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:15.732 | C5 |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:16.516 | C5 |
| 3 | Esteban Ocon | Renault | 1:17.102 | C4 |
| 4 | Lance Stroll | Racing Point | 1:17.338 | C4 |
| 5 | Daniil Kvyat | AlphaTauri | 1:17.427 | C4 |
| 6 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | 1:17.469 | C4 |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 1:17.574 | C3 |
| 8 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:17.636 | C2 |
| 9 | Alex Albon | Red Bull | 1:18.154 | C2 |
| 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1:18.213 | C2 |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 1:18.274 | C2 |
| 12 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:18.380 | C3 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:18.384 | C3 |
| 14 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:18.454 | C3 |
| 15 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1:19.004 | C3 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1:19.709 | C2 |
LAPS COMPLETE
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DAY 3 DRIVER LAPS COMPLETE
- Antonio Giovinazzi 152
- Lance Stroll 116
- Sebastian Vettel 100
- Daniel Ricciardo 93
- Max Verstappen 86
- Alex Albon 83
- Carlos Sainz 76
- Esteban Ocon 76
- Lewis Hamilton 73
- Nicholas Latifi 72
- Valtteri Bottas 65
- Daniil Kvyat 62
- Pierre Gasly 59
- Lando Norris 49
- Romain Grosjean 48
- Kevin Magnussen 4
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DAY 3 TEAM LAPS COMPLETE
- Red Bull 169
- Renault 169
- Alfa Romeo 152
- Mercedes 138
- McLaren 125
- AlphaTauri 121
- Racing Point 116
- Ferrari 100
- Williams 72
- Haas 52
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