FÓRMULA-1

Hamilton makes best lap of the week and leads collective tests
in a wonderful atmosphere and also without the chaos of the last two days, F1 returned to the track on Thursday (1) for the fourth and final day of the first set of pre-season collective tests and saw some welcome news and beats confirmations . The morning rain gave way to the afternoon dry track and what was most anticipated happened was a Mercedes lead with Lewis Hamilton, who set the fastest time of the week. And with medium tires.The four-time champion appeared at peripheral times to Stoffel Vandoorne, who for hours was the leader of the tests using hypermacious tire. Lewis did not walk that much during the afternoon - he did fewer laps than Valtteri Bottas, morning pilot on the Silver Arrow. Always with medium tires. He came to take the tip at a certain point, but had the return canceled for exceeding the limits of the track. Until it managed to spur 1min19s333, more than 0s5 in the lead.The most encouraging thing a team did on the day may be a prize given to McLaren. Stoffel Vandoorne stayed with the car all morning and most of the afternoon. He tested the hypermaces, came to lead and finished the turn with 110 spins. Alonso stayed with the rest of the afternoon and tested only super tires. He passed the 50 laps and got the fifth fastest time. With more than 160 laps in the day, McLaren has left unscathed with mechanical problems.
The third place of the day, behind Hamilton and Vandoorne, was with Sebastian Vettel. Of course the placement, even more with different types of tires is secondary at this time of the preseason, but the more than 100 laps are too important. The best turn of the four times champion was marked with soft tires.


Kevin Magnussen-Team Hass

The fourth place, in turn, was a Haas who lived an entertaining day. Kevin Magnussen came to lead at any given time, but even after leaving the top of the times table always appeared near her. Fastest room of the day with super tires, has reached 90 laps in the turn.
Another team that changed drivers in the afternoon was Carlos Sainz. Of medium tires, took over after Hülkenberg spend the morning on the wet track. And Lance Stroll, in seventh place, finally took Robert Kubica Williams' fastest post in the preseason.
Highlight was also for the red flag caused by Max Verstappen. The Dutchman made a quick return when he escaped from the track and was caught in the gravel and needing the rescue to take action for Red Bull to leave the outskirts of Barcelona.
The snow was behind, and the weather even improved in Barcelona on the first day of March. With 7.2ºC ambient temperature and just over 9.4ºC on the asphalt, F1 started its last morning in this first chaotic week of preseason due to the climate. But the track started very wet, the result of the rains that plummeted in the Catalan circuit at night and also the fog, which made the visibility very reduced in the early hours of the day.Without losing time and punctually at 9 am (5 am in Brasília), the pilots were already leaving the pits to perform the first installation laps. All of them using extreme rain tires, since the track was well soaked at the time. Marcus Ericsson tried to pull the line with his Sauber-Alfa Romeo C37.With 17 minutes of time, Stoffel Vandoorne made the first half of the day: 2min00s707. It was the harbinger of a much busier morning than the previous one. Even with the Belgian then reducing to 1min 59s, it was still a long way from being significant. The track conditions prevented a clearer analysis of the performance of each car.
Between the stints here and there, the riders sought to analyze the conditions of the track, but in the first hour only Vandoorne, who later improved his time to 1min49s041, and Ericsson, had time to measure. And it was precisely the Swedish, with exactly one hour of session, responsible for the first red flag of the day to escape on Turn 2.12 minutes later, the green flag fluttered again in Barcelona. No time to waste, McLaren soon sent Vandoorne back on track. The Belgian, who already had 15 laps completed, was lowering his mark and also gaining more mileage, reaching 21 spins before closing his stint.

Sergey Sirotkin-Team Williams

Here Pierre Gasly and Sergey Sirotkin recorded their first times of the day. With an hour and a half of session, Vandoorne appeared ahead with 1min43s433, 0s561 faster than Sirotkin, and Gasly, 4s502 behind and only five laps, third. But while Stoffel was in the pits, Sirotkin took advantage of the fast laps to take the lead, arriving at the home for 1min40s. This was a sign the track was drying up. Another sign was the entry of Sebastian Vettel on the track with the intermediate tires, being the first to do so. On the other hand, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen were still in the pits of Force India and Red Bull, respectively.
And it was with the middleman that Vettel, in the wake of a good stint, took the edge of the session and was the first to walk below 1min40s, with 1min39s791. Bottas, also with the green tires, was already in second place. Ferrari and Mercedes on the edge, in the natural order of F1 forces. But that's when Mercedes tried to show F1 that it apparently starts another year with the best car.
Bottas put in a very good series of quick laps with the intermediaries and had no difficulties not only to overcome, but to spare before Vettel. At the apex of his stint, the Nordic scored 1min33s774. Seb, on the other hand, completed his best lap in this phase of the training with 1min36s162 and followed with a race simulation, hence the difference. Also striking was the presence of Pierre Gasly in third, just ahead of McLaren de Vandoorne.

Fernando Silva -GP