Barcelona Winter Tests – Day 3: An Astonishing Kvyat Puts His Toro Rosso on Top
For a long time at the top of the timesheet, Kimi Räikkönen was unexpectedly overtaken by Daniil Kvyat driving his Toro Rosso with a Honda engine. Both men are ahead of Daniel Ricciardo's Renault, while the Ferraris, like the Mercedes, were more discreet today.
For once, it’s not a Ferrari that is leading at the end of this third day of winter testing for the season at the Barcelona circuit.
Indeed, in the final minutes before the checkered flag, while Kimi Räikkönen was holding the first place since his morning 1:17.762, an astonishing Daniil Kvyat came to take the top of the timesheet, clocking a 1:17.704 at the wheel of his Honda-powered Toro Rosso.
The least we can say since the beginning of the week is that Honda seems to have found reliability over the winter. Kvyat completed a staggering 137 laps, while Max Verstappen on his Red Bull did 109. This is a far cry from the difficult winters Honda has experienced in recent years…
Saving his best for last 😉@kvyatofficial punches in a 1:17.704 to clock the fastest time of the day for @ToroRosso, with just a handful of minutes left to go! 💪#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/Lv0QnGxKrV
— Formula 1 (@F1) 20 février 2019
The day was also marked by the repeated breakdowns of the Haas team, which forced Pietro Fittipaldi and Romain Grosjean to spend long periods watching their teammates drive. The American team, which is rather fast, is nevertheless starting to lose quite a bit of time in its development.
But the main attraction of the day is of course the first laps of the Williams FW42. The car arrived overnight at the Barcelona circuit, and the British team’s mechanics achieved a feat by allowing George Russell to hit the track in the early afternoon.
Unfortunately, the young Briton will hardly have the chance to shine at the wheel of a visually unstable single-seater. But there is still one day left at Williams to get back on track.
It took longer than @WilliamsRacing wanted – but here’s @GeorgeRussell63 taking his FW42 out on track for the first time 👏🚀#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/0Rw5tBP0og
— Formula 1 (@F1) 20 février 2019
On the side of the new tires offered by Pirelli this season, it is still difficult to clearly assess their performance. Today, Daniil Kvyat set his best time with the C5 compound, which is the Softest from the Italian manufacturer. For comparison, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc’s Ferraris set their best times (one second off Kvyat’s time today) on Days 1 and 2 with the C3 compound, which is in the Medium range.
Torpedo in full attack mode 🚀
Kimi as rapid as ever 🔥
And our first sighting of the 2019 @WilliamsRacing #F1 car 👋
Final classification from our third day of #F1Testing! pic.twitter.com/iNsZP1Ofkh
— Formula 1 (@F1) 20 février 2019
