Barcelona Day 4: Hamilton tops final test from week one

Lewis Hamilton topped the final day of the first week of testing from Barcelona. The Britons fastest lap was a 1:19.333, which was the quickest time that was set this week.

Only two minutes after the green flag was waved, Sebastian Vettel took his Ferrari to the circuit. Soon after him, Gasly, Sirotkin, Ericsson, Hulkenberg and Magnussen all followed the German.

Stoffel Vandoorne took out his McLaren and scored the 100th lap in the Barcelona for the Woking based team. The Belgian was the main man to watch in the first hour. Lap after lap, he improved his best lap time. At the end of the first hour, Vandoorne clocked the Barcelona circuit in 1:49.497.

Soon afterwards the red flag was showed for the first time. Marcus Ericsson went into the gravel on Turn 2 and didn't manage to go back on track. After Ericsson's incident was cleared, the green flag brought back Vandoorne on track. The Belgian continued to improve his best time and stayed in P1 for a while, though Gasly and Toro Rosso scored several good lap times.

Sirotkin, Vettel and Bottas tried to better Vandoorne's reference but they failed initially. After the track began to dry, Vettel passed Vandoorne for the lead, with an excellent 1:42.365. His joy was short-lived, as Bottas dramatically improved Vettel's time. The Mercedes man scored an outstanding 1:41.619.

The first part of the day was a battle between Vettel, Verstappen and Bottas. The two went on the score faster and faster lap times. By the lunch break, the three drivers going faster and faster as the track dried significantly. Half way through the day, Gasly stunned everyone and set the reference. His joy was also short-lived as Bottas once again managed to get the fastest lap.

Hulkenberg set the fastest lap, with an excellent 1:22.507. The rapid of the events meant that his joy was also short-lived as Vandoorne conquered back his place on top of the standings. The McLaren driver was the first to try the hyper soft. 1:20.899 was the lap time posted by Vandoorne.

The Belgian went even faster and improved his best time. Sooner than everyone expected, he became the first man to go under 1:20. His excellent run with the hyper softs was clocked in 1:19.854. 

Leclerc and Hamilton made their debut for today. The two went unnoticed for a while. As soon as Hamilton found the tempo he scored a very good 1:20.405. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso was confirmed to drive for the last two hours of the day.

Back on track, Stroll and Sainz were the only guys who tried to better their time. Vandoorne completed 110 laps and was done for the day. Sauber scored as well more than 100 laps with Leclerc onboard. Just minutes before we entered in the last two hours of the day, Lewis Hamilton moved to P1. The world champion set the new fastest lap with 1:19.753 on the medium tyres.

The last two hours of the day were very busy. Unfortunately for Red Bull, Max Verstappen stalled the car into the gravel within the last two hours. Soon, Hamilton improved his personal best and set a new reference with 1:19.333. Stroll, Magnussen and Alonso have also improved their best lap times.

With less than thirty minutes left, Leclerc apparently went out and once again the red flag was showed. Unfortunately, that was a graphic mistake and the green flag was rapidly deployed back. Fernando Alonso managed to get some laps for the McLaren team, which has covered more than 140 laps. 

In the last minutes of the session Vettel, Magnussen, Stroll and Gasly have all come back onto the track. Just minutes before the session ended, Vettel became only the third driver to get more than 100 laps at the first winter session test of 2018. The chequered flag was waved at 6 PM local time with Hamilton in P1.