FÓRMULA 1

Alonso is the only one to set time in third day of collective tests
It was four hours of almost nothing. The weather, with snow, rain and cold in Barcelona prevented the cars from receiving green light to go to the track in the morning, and in the afternoon of Wednesday (28), little appeared for the dance. On one of the least busy days ever seen in the F1 pre-season collective tests, the highlight was even for the jokes of the teams in the pits.With no quick laps on the track for most of the time, it was the Mercedes snowman who shone. The song by Daniel Ricciardo and the good-natured Fernando Alonso on Twitter also stood out. The day, other than that, was completely forgettable by any point of view.As there was only one quick lap, of Alonso in the final minutes, it was he who finished with the lead of the day. And the rest of the drivers got the last place.After the snow in the early hours of the day, a rain fell on the Circuit de Catalunya to dissolve the ice that had fallen. The test was actually opened at 8 am (Brasília), after hours of red flag. But the movement did not follow.
The first to take a chance on the cold and wet track was Fernando Alonso, at 9:12 am (from Brasilia). The two-time champion noticed that the asphalt was drenched by the constant heavy rain that continued. Even with extreme rain tires, he just tried an installation lap and returned to the pits.Shortly thereafter, Daniel Ricciardo and Marcus Ericsson did exactly the same for Red Bull and Sauber. The Australian tried to get back on the track more than an hour later, but he rolled and ended up on the gravel. Brendon Hartley, who had just appeared with a sleigh, made an installation lap with Toro Rosso. Robert Kubica and Ericsson tried again, but were soon back in the garages.Although better than in the morning, when the runway temperature was less than 1 ° C, in the afternoon it was colder than the teams would like, at about 3 ° C.Alonso tried the track again at the beginning of the last hour, again with extreme rain tires, but at very low speed and without timing. Before that, Ferrari and Renault had aborted the day of tests, paths that Haas and Force India also decided to take.
More up on the track, Alonso joked on Twitter that he was the only one to turn around for almost an hour. And even a drawing GIF he repeated when he was shown by a follower that Ricciardo had also taken a turn. Good humor is what's left.
Ricciardo himself took some time to sing about the collective tests so far. "We're in the rally of the winter tests, it's cold for the day. We're here in Barcelona and we're going to get pneumonia," was what the lyrics consisted of.
In the end, there was still a move: Alonso returned to the track with 20 minutes on the clock and set a bad lap: 2min21s268. And still did the feat of improving for 2min18s545. Since no one else dared defy the clock, he kept the end of the table. For the teams, the expectation is that the weather improves tomorrow - although the weather forecast points to rain.

Pedro Marum -G P