The third and final day of pre-season testing in Barcelona has come to an end, following multiple red flags and a truck dumping water all over the track in order for teams to simulate wet weather conditions on a crucial day of data collection.
Today saw Lewis Hamilton and George Russell top the time sheets today for Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team. It was a strong day for the seven-time world champion, who clocked 94 laps in the afternoon session and set the fastest time of 1:19.138 – just under a tenth quicker than his teammate in the morning session.
Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen would set the third and fourth fastest times of the day respectively, with a collective 133 laps added to Oracle Red Bull Racing’s total. They found themselves around half a second behind the fastest time that Hamilton set in the afternoon.
Sebastian Vettel found himself in fifth place at the end of the day, though an issue with his Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team in the morning session saw him pull over and bring out the red flag. Aston Martin claimed the issue turned out to be an oil leak, which caused a fire in the German’s car; this saw the British team halt running for the rest of the day.
Ferrari would lock out fifth and sixth place in the standings after putting in a mighty 136 laps for the session. The session was drama free for Ferrari, as they end the week with 440 laps of practice.
Alex Albon and Nicolas Latifi would follow the Ferraris, finishing in eighth and ninth respectively. With 107 laps completed today, it has been a good day for Williams Racing as they end the week with their eyes on the top 10 this season.
The McLaren F1 Team cars continued the back-to-back theme, with Daniel Ricciardo finishing in tenth place with a strong 86 laps in today’s session, while Lando Norris finished in eleventh with 52 laps.
It wasn’t a great day for Fernando Alonso, as he came to a stop and brought the red flags out after just 12 laps of running. BWT Alpine F1 Team confirmed that a failure with the hydraulics caused by a ‘minor sealing issue’, and taking the A522 off the track for the rest of the day.
Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN‘s Guanyu Zhou finished the session in thirteeth place and clocked 41 laps as the only rookie in this year’s F1 season, though it wasn’t without issue, as he would bring out the red flag in the morning session after what many believe was a spin. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas would end the day in sixteenth and last place with 10 laps.
Pierre Gasly set 40 laps in today’s session and would finish in 14th place, though an impact with the wall saw the session get stopped and Scuderia AlphaTauri have to repair damage to the front of the car. Thankfully the Frenchman was okay.
Finally, Nikita Mazepin finished in 15th place in what was a strange day for Haas F1 Team. As a result of the current circumstances in Ukraine, Haas opted to remove all Uralkali logos and colours from the car; seeing the signature white, blue and red front wing be replaced with a black one. It was also confirmed during the first session that F1 would suspend planning for the Russian Grand Prix later this year.
FIA Formula 1 World Championship – Pre-season testing – Barcelona – Day 3/3 Results
| POS | NO. | DRIVER | NAT | TEAM | TIME | GAP | LAPS | |
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | 1:19.138 | 94 | ||
| 2 | 63 | George Russell | GBR | Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team | 1:19.233 | +0.095 | 66 | |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:19.556 | +0.418 | 74 | |
| 4 | 1 | Max Verstappen | NED | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:19.756 | +0.618 | 59 | |
| 5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | GER | Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team | 1:19.824 | +0.686 | 48 | |
| 6 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:19.831 | +0.693 | 44 | |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | ESP | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:20.072 | +0.934 | 92 | |
| 8 | 23 | Alex Albon | THA | Williams Racing | 1:20.318 | +1.180 | 94 | |
| 9 | 6 | Nicolas Latifi | CAN | Williams Racing | 1:20.699 | +1.561 | 13 | |
| 10 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | McLaren | 1:20.790 | +1.652 | 86 | |
| 11 | 4 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren | 1:20.827 | +1.689 | 52 | |
| 12 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | BWT Alpine F1 Team | 1:21.242 | +2.104 | 12 | |
| 13 | 24 | Guanyu Zhou | CHN | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1:21.939 | +2.801 | 41 | |
| 14 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Scuderia AlphaTauri | 1:22.469 | +3.331 | 40 | |
| 15 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | RUS | Haas F1 Team | 1:26.229 | +7.091 | 9 | |
| 16 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN | 1:30.433 | +11.295 | 10 |
