Raikkonen fastest for Ferrari as F1 testing ends

But in pre-season testing for the 2017 season, German Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen were the two fastest drivers in single lap terms over the two weeks of Barcelona running in Ferrari’s SF70H. Pushing to the line, the Finn posted a 1m18.634s, setting the fastest time of the week and leaving him over 0.8s clear of the field.

Williams newcomer Lance Stroll was seventh using the soft tyre, ending up the joint most productive driver of the morning along with Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson on 59 laps.

Raikkonen’s 1:18.634 lap time might only have been 3.366 seconds faster than Hamilton’s, but considering his auto likely wasn’t in quali-trim, this year’s pole lap will probably be around 4 seconds faster as promised.

Sebastian Vettel has said the mistakes made on race day in 2016 ultimately prevented Ferrari from showing their true progression.

“Historically, Mercedes is always slower in the tests than in the races”.

The season starts in Australia on March 26. Williams, which slipped previous year, seems to have made a step in the right directions and clearly has the fourth quickest auto on the grid.

“The others look very quick and it looks like we have a good battle on our hands.”

“Whatever the case, I can’t wait to go out and compete”.

It would be unwise to read too much into Vettel’s pace at this stage – pre-season testing times are notoriously unreliable indications of real form because it is impossible to know the details of a number of influential variables, such as fuel load and engine mode. “But they are very close, if not faster”. “They’re the ones to beat”.

Adding further insult to injury for the McLaren team, Thursday represented what can only be considered an absolute disaster for the English outfit – Stoffel Vandoorne’s vehicle twice lost power while on-track throughout the day. “Their pace has been spectacular”, Hamilton said, via Sky Sports.

Renault became the fifth team to break the 1m20s barrier today as Nico Hulkenberg logged the yellow car’s best lap of the week.

Earlier this week McLaren team principal Eric Boullier hinted that Honda’s repeated failures and lack of performance is putting tremendous strain on the partnerships and star driver Fernando Alonso threw Honda under the bus a day later.