Barcelona Test: Russell leads disrupted morning session on Day 3

George Russell set the pace for Mercedes on a disrupted final morning of testing in Barcelona.

After a fairly smooth start to testing with no interruptions on Day 1 and just two stoppages on Thursday, Friday morning so five red flag periods for differing reasons.

The first was a smoky failure for Fernando Alonso as a hydraulics problem caused a fire in the Alpine, ending their test early.

Pierre Gasly then went off into the gravel at Turn 5, shortly followed by 2022 rookie Guanyu Zhou, who had a spin at Turn 10 before coming to a halt in the final sector in the Alfa Romeo soon after.

The morning session was then ended early by an apparent engine issue for Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin at Turn 10, with his car coming to a stop after a puff of smoke from the rear.

All that meant Russell was on top with the best time so far this week in Spain, a 1m19.233s on the C5 Pirelli tyre, the softest compound in the range.

Despite the red flags, the Briton also managed the most laps with 66, equal to a full Spanish Grand Prix race distance.

That lap may also go unbeaten for the rest of the day, as the circuit will be soaked during the lunch break in preparation for a wet tyre test in the afternoon.

In a throwback to last year, Max Verstappen was second for Red Bull, half a second slower than the Mercedes but on the C3 tyres.

Vettel moved up to third also on the C5 tyre shortly before his stoppage, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc the last driver sub 1m20s in fourth on the C3 compound.

Usually, teams split the morning and afternoon between drivers, but Williams did that in the morning as Nicholas Latifi managed just five laps but was still fifth fastest, while teammate Alex Albon put in 21 laps and was 10th quickest.

McLaren had a more subdued morning with Lando Norris sixth, ahead of Alonso in seventh despite his early end to the day.

Zhou was eighth, Gasly ninth, Albon 10th and Nikita Mazepin, in the now white and black Haas, at the bottom of the standings after another suspected leak on the car cost them valuable running time.