Lewis Hamilton misses final day of testing due to electrical fault

New Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas did manage to run in the afternoon, but was way down the timesheets in eighth fastest for his 68 laps.

‘I hope that it splits the men from the boys, ‘ he said of the physical challenges the cars impose on drivers with the fatter tyres and revised aerodynamics subjecting them to increased G-forces through corners.

“Definitely I’m feeling more and more comfortable and more part of the team every day”.

“Are we going to be fast enough?”

The 18-year-old returned to the gravel, however, and finished in the tyre wall, bringing out more red flags, in a sign that he still has plenty to learn. “We’ve done a lot of mileage and I learned a lot”.

“If we compare with how it went a year ago it’s been much smoother going, so it’s a good start”, Raikkonen told reporters in Barcelona.

Tire supplier Pirelli soaked the track’s surface overnight with the help of eight water tanks, allowing teams to test this season’s wider tires on the wet.

Despite the track being dampened again during the lunch break, the majority of the afternoon running took place on slick tyres. Ricciardo was third-fastest on day three, while Max Verstappen went second-fastest on day four behind Raikkonen.

Mercedes, the pace-setters for most of the first three days of action in Spain, only emerged late in the session-with Lewis Hamilton opting not to run at all-and Williams did not appear due to a chassis issue.

Different ways of working in terms of de-briefs, meetings and on-track communication, as well as getting used to a new vehicle, have seen the Finn have to work extra hard to become accustomed to the German teams way of doing things, as he explained to motorsport.com recently. In general everything behaved pretty well. “Just following a couple of cars it was quite a bit worse”.

“It’s been a productive day for us”, Grosjean said.

“Shame not to drive but it’s been a great few days”. So the vehicle behind is getting all the different dirty air that is moving in different ways. We’re trying to understand as much as we can. “We’ve not really exploited the potential of the auto, so it’s all good foundation building at this stage”. “Hopefully, we can analyze all of that over the weekend and come back stronger next week”.

Honda-powered McLaren picked up the pace, with double world champion Fernando Alonso managing 72 laps.

It was also a disappointing day for Toro Rosso, who have switched to a Renault engine from a Ferrari unit in time for the new season. Williams, meanwhile, were not able to run owing to damage sustained yesterday when Lance Stroll crashed the team’s vehicle.