Kimi Räikkönen fastest in final day of Formula 1’s preseason
Ferrari set the fastest time of the final day of Formula 1 testing with Kimi Räikkönen’s time of 1min17.221sec, 0.039sec slower than Sebastian Vettel’s preseason benchmark set on Thursday.
Fernando Alonso took second place with 15 minutes remaining as he set a time of 1min17.785sec on hypersoft tyres, within half a second of the Ferrari. Though his McLaren brought out an early red flag, with oil spilling from his Renault power unit in the morning, Alonso recovered to set 93 laps on Friday.
In third was Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr, who was nine tenths back on hypersofts, with just 35 laps of running under his belt due to gearbox problems. Daniel Ricciardo followed in fourth place, his time of 1min18.164sec set on supersoft tyres.
Brendon Hartley completed another 156 laps for Toro Rosso, continuing a strong showing for the newly Honda-powered team, placing seventh ahead of Force India’s Esteban Ocon.
Mercedes kept its card close to its chest with more solid race simulations as Valtteri Bottas finished sixth with a fastest lap set on medium tyres and 74 laps completed, putting himself behind Haas’ Romain Grosjean (ultrasofts). Grosjean completed the highest distance over Friday with 181 laps. Lewis Hamilton finished 11th with 97 laps completed, ahead of 12th place Lance Stroll who propped up the timesheets.
| Driver | Team | Time | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1min 17.221ec (Hypersoft) | 157 |
| Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1min 17.784sec (Hypersoft) | 93 |
| Carlos Sainz Jr | Renault | 1min 18.092sec (Hypersoft) | 45 |
| Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1min 18.327sec (Supersoft) | 92 |
| Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1min 18.412sec (Supersoft) | 181 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1min 18.825sec (Medium) | 104 |
| Brendon Hartley | Toro Rosso | 1min 18.949sec (Hypersoft) | 156 |
| Esteban Ocon | Force India | 1min 18.967sec (Hypersoft) | 163 |
| Charles Leclerc | Sauber | 1min 19.118sec (Hypersoft) | 97 |
| Sergey Sirotkin | Williams | 1min 19.189sec (Soft) | 105 |
| Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1min 19.464sec (Supersoft) | 97 |
| Lance Stroll | Williams | 1min 19.954sec (Soft) | 27 |
Red Bull will look back at 2023 as a season of record-breaking dominance with a rocket ship car; brilliant strategy; and blistering pace from Max Verstappen. But amid the hubris,…
Liam Lawson couldn’t have done much more to convince Red Bull he was worthy of a full-time seat at its junior team for 2024. You know, the team whoes sole…
One of the most demanding sections of track in the world, Suzuka's Esses reveal who is driving at a higher level, says Mark Hughes. It's identified the greats for decades and, at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, singled out a potential new world champion
As race weekends go, Oscar Piastri had a pretty special five days in Suzuka. First, his arrival in Japan was greeted with the announcement that he had signed a new…