Carlos Sainz Jnr set the fastest time of any driver in pre-season testing so far on the morning of the sixth day at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The McLaren driver produced a best of 1’17.144, which was also three-hundredths of a second faster than the best time seen in last year’s pre-season tests at the same circuit.Sainz was one second ahead of the next-quickest driver, Sebastian Vettel, whose morning came to an early end when he crashed. Vettel had just begun a run in his SF90 when he went straight on at turn three with a suspected mechanical problem and made light contact with the barrier.
The session was red-flagged for over half an hour while Vettel’s car was retrieved. The Ferrari hasn’t returned to the track since and the team has indicated it won’t be ready to run again until later in the afternoon.
The trio at the top of the times caused each of the morning’s three red flags. In addition to Vettel’s crash, Sainz stopped on track shortly after setting his session-topping time, and Max Verstappen also came to a halt at the pit lane exit.
Besides McLaren, Williams was the only other team to improve its best time of the test so far this morning. Robert Kubica set a best of 1’19.367, moving the FW42 up to eighth place.
Most teams lapped well shy of the pace they have shown previously and concentrated on increasing their mileage, in spite of the disruption to the morning’s running. Verstappen, Bottas and Daniel Ricciardo all covered more than a race distance during the first four hours of running.
2019 F1 pre-season testing day six morning times
| Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps | Tyres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | McLaren | MCL34 | 1’17.144 | 56 | C4 | |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | SF90 | 1’18.195 | 1.051 | 40 | C3 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | RB15 | 1’18.395 | 1.251 | 69 | C3 |
| 4 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | W10 | 1’18.941 | 1.797 | 74 | C3 |
| 5 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | STR14 | 1’19.060 | 1.916 | 36 | C3 |
| 6 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | C38 | 1’19.194 | 2.050 | 43 | C3 |
| 7 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | RP19 | 1’19.202 | 2.058 | 29 | C3 |
| 8 | 88 | Robert Kubica | Williams | FW42 | 1’19.367 | 2.223 | 42 | C5 |
| 9 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | VF-19 | 1’19.717 | 2.573 | 57 | C2 |
| 10 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | RS19 | 1’22.597 | 5.453 | 72 | C1 |
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Marshall Matthews (@hove9)
27th February 2019, 12:08
The fuel and tyre adjusted times from the first test showed McLaren’s headline lap time was flattering. Same again today?
kpcart
27th February 2019, 13:41
How do you know the fuel levels??????
ColdFly (@)
27th February 2019, 12:13
Is Vettel driving that SUV/Truck?
Nuggy1980
27th February 2019, 12:25
Yes. However the SUV/truck was only slower than the McLaren due to a fundamental issue that they hope to get on top of next season.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th February 2019, 14:36
@coldfly No, he wasn’t. The steering wheel on that particular car is, for some reason, on the other side (the left-hand traffic side) despite Spain being a right-hand side traffic country. I found that out via an image taken from a different angle on the Motorsport.com pre-testing live feed.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th February 2019, 14:41
@coldfly Here’s the image I found earlier today:
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/vettel-damage-hard-crash-cause/4344693/?nrt=54
hamiledon
27th February 2019, 12:13
lorry driver sebastian is the driver of the day.
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th February 2019, 12:25
That was a weird crash, didn’t look like he lost it, just stopped steering right and went straight into the barrier
With that said, the way Ferrari responded to Mercedes aero package is a bit excessive isn’t it?
Oxnard (@montalvo)
27th February 2019, 13:04
Looks like a right rear suspension failure.
Oxnard (@montalvo)
27th February 2019, 13:07
Hmm, was looking at the video, looking at the pics it doesn’t look like a suspension failure at all.
rpiian (@rpiian)
27th February 2019, 15:14
Internal steering failure perhaps?
kpcart
27th February 2019, 13:42
Response to aero package? Give me some of the drugs you are on
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th February 2019, 13:59
you missed it didn’t you?
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
27th February 2019, 14:09
I like the way they organically fused the concepts of both Halo and aeroscreen together. Absolutely groundbraking stuff for all of open-cockpit racecars
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th February 2019, 14:38
doesn’t even need an helmet!
Islander
27th February 2019, 12:55
An ill omen for Vettel.
Like his crash during the Ferrari event in downtown Milan three days before Monza.
We have to look to Verstappen now to deliver us from these boring Mercedes years.
kpcart
27th February 2019, 13:43
You assume it was vettels fault, yet it was a car failure
MrBoerns (@mrboerns)
27th February 2019, 13:43
Is that Williams time on C5 the first actual sign that performance may be as bad as we fear?
Islander
27th February 2019, 13:51
No such assumption, kpcart….
Txizzle
27th February 2019, 16:43
Suddenly noticing how nice Sainz’s helmet together with the McLaren’s colour. :P
And nice to see McLaren leading a list again, even if only in testing.