Charles Leclerc put a tricky two days for Ferrari firmly behind him as he set a new blistering benchmark on the third morning of the second Formula 1 test.
Following Sebastian Vettel’s high-speed off on Wednesday, the Monegasque was straight down to business and in the final hour, produced three fastest laps on the C5 tyre with a best of 1m16.231s.
That time is comfortably the quickest seen this year and is only a tenth off the pole position time set by Lewis Hamilton for last year’s Spanish Grand Prix.
On the day it gave Leclerc a six-tenth advantage over Alexander Albon in the Toro Rosso with Lando Norris and Pierre Gasly both in the 1m17.0s all on Pirelli’s fastest compound.
Perhaps the most interesting lap time of the morning came from Hamilton in the Mercedes, as he posted a 1m18.097s by using the C2 rubber which, when tyre-corrected, would put the Briton in touching distance of the Ferrari.
Long runs were still the main focus for the world champion though, as he amassed 85 laps in the W10, the most for a single driver, as he prepares to hand over to teammate Valtteri Bottas for the afternoon.
Nico Hulkenberg only fifth on the C5 tyre is a less-than-convincing result for Renault, though it does appear performance was still far from the priority for the French manufacturer as the German completed 73 laps.
Lance Stroll was sixth in the Racing Point though, like teammate Sergio Perez on Wednesday, will be hoping for a busier PM session with only 37 laps to the Canadian’s name.
Antonio Giovinazzi had a steady morning in seventh for Alfa Romeo ahead of Hamilton on his harder tyres.
George Russell was ninth as Williams appears to continue lagging behind the rest, though he was narrowly ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, with the Dane using the developmental C3 compound.
Full results from the morning can be seen below:
