Testing Summary

Best single lap
1 Ferrari (Sebastian Vettel) – 1m16.221s - C5
2 Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton) – 1m16.224s +0.003s - C5
3 Renault (Nico Hulkenberg) – 1m16.843s +0.622s - C5
4 Toro Rosso (Daniil Kvyat) – 1m16.898s +0.677s- C5
5 McLaren (Carlos Sainz) – 1m16.913s +0.692s- C5
6 Haas (Romain Grosjean) – 1m17.076s +0.855s - C5
7 Alfa Romeo (Kimi Raikkonen) - 1m17.239s +1.018s- C5
8 Red Bull (Max Verstappen) – 1m17.709s +1.488s - (C3)
9 Racing Point (Sergio Perez)) – 1m17.791s +1.570s - C5
10 Williams (Robert Kubica) – 1m18.993s +2.772s - C5

There’s a significant gap back to the rest of the field, with Renault six tenths adrift. However, Red Bull were the only team not to run a C5 lap, with Max Verstappen spending most of the day in the garage with a gearbox issue.

If we were to adjust the times to account for the deficit between the compounds, which according to Pirelli is around 0.6s, the team would move into third, 0.288s off the pace.

Verstappen wouldn’t be drawn on suggesting a pecking order, but said he was “optimistic" about Red Bull-Honda’s chances. He had particular praise for Honda, who ran reliably throughout while also showing shoots of encouraging performance.

Alfa Romeo and Haas ticked off a race simulation, as our stint graph shows, in the afternoon courtesy of Kimi Raikkonen and Kevin Magnussen respectively.

When it came to ultimate pace, it was Haas, in the hands of Romain Grosjean, who had the edge between them, almost two tenths quicker than Raikkonen managed, when both ran the softest tyre.

Williams’ test ended in frustrating fashion, with the team having to cut their long run short in the afternoon because according to technical chief Paddy Lowe, “a number of critical bodywork parts had reached a stage of degradation that meant that we were no longer learning useful information from the car nor indeed for Robert".

It means that Kubica will head to Melbourne, for his first race in eight years, lacking the mileage and comfort in the car that he had hoped for. But the stuttering final flourish to the graph shows Kubica was at least able to do some race procedural practices, such as starts and pitstops, that will have been very useful.

The next time we'll see the cars in practice it'll count...

Link to article; https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.f1-testing-ferrari-edging-mercedes-according-to-the-final-test-data.2CO8RTFbIinTMEzHhP8KWe.html