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Formula 1 testing summary - Renault fastest but Ferrari happiest

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg set the fastest time in the first Formula 1 pre-season test at Barcelona, but leading teams acknowledged that Ferrari is the early 2019 favourite.

Hulkenberg bolted on a set of the softest Pirellis, the C5, and topped the week's leaderboard in what was a cool but dry start to the season at the Catalunya track.

Less than an hour after setting that time, Hulkenberg stopped with on track with a problem - which will be a concern as the team didn't conduct as many long runs as its rivals.

F1 debutant Alexander Albon had set the fastest time on Thursday morning, following the lead of his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat from the afternoon before, and their times stood as the second and third quickest of the four days. But the car still looked to be behind likely midfield rivals Alfa Romeo and Renault on longer runs.

Ferrari combined for the eighth and ninth fastest times from the test, but didn't conduct faster performance runs on the final day of the test when many of its rivals did so.

Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel combined to notch up 598 laps, second only to Mercedes, and topped most of the first two days of running.

The team looks threatening on short and long runs, with both Red Bull and Mercedes placing Ferrari at the head of the order.

The man Leclerc has swapped seats with - Kimi Raikkonen - ended the week fourth fastest overall for what is now Alfa Romeo. Raikkonen may have visited the gravel trap on his first lap in the Alfa, but he turned that around for a brilliant lap on the C4 tyre on Tuesday afternoon.

Antonio Giovinazzi then showed that the team has long run pace too, appearing to be the quickest team behind the big three of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull by that measure, although his outright fastest lap was good enough for 11th only.

Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest middle sector of anyone on the test on Thursday as he set the fifth fastest time, although he bagged 61 fewer laps than his team-mate Hulkenberg during his Renault debut.

Valtteri Bottas (C5) and Lewis Hamilton (C4) took the sixth and seventh best times respectively, after Mercedes promised a boost in performance for Thursday.

But the team struggled to get the same boost in performance from the two softer tyres, the C4 and C5, as its rivals, although its long-run pace on the C3 and C2 was comparable to Red Bull and Ferrari. With Bottas and Hamilton's efforts combined, the team completed the highest number of laps.

Behind Leclerc and Vettel in eighth and ninth, Lando Norris rounded out the top 10 with an impressive Thursday where McLaren took a step forward from the pace it had shown on Monday.

Norris did visit the gravel at Turn 5 on Thursday morning, but looked at home in F1 as he joined Albon and Williams driver George Russell in graduating from Formula 2.

Carlos Sainz Jr, in the other McLaren, earned 11th. While both drivers finished sessions as the runner-up overall, improvements through the week rendered those times irrelevant.

Haas suffered a tricky start. Romain Grosjean drew to halt once on Monday morning and twice on Wednesday afternoon with electronic-based issues, while Kevin Magnussen lost running for adjustments to his headrest. Test driver Pietro Fittipaldi impressed in what was otherwise a tough week for the team.

Red Bull's Helmut Marko labelled the test the most successful pre-season build-up his team has had so far, despite only taking 15th and 16th fastest times overall.

The team's long run pace was impressive, and Pierre Gasly rebounded from a crash at Turn 12 on Tuesday afternoon to cover more laps than Max Verstappen in the car.

Further good news for Red Bull came via the mileage its new engine partner Honda notched up. For the first time since it returned to F1, it wasn't bottom of the mileage table in testing - making the most of now having two teams to cover more ground than both Mercedes and Renault.

Racing Point suffered a dire test in statistical terms, second to last in mileage completed and lap times. Lance Stroll's effort on the final day was marginally better than Sergio Perez's time a day before, but on paper the team has a lot to do to return to fighting at the head of the 'Class B' battle.

Williams didn't get any running until Wednesday afternoon, and was comfortably bottom of the order thereafter with Robert Kubica and Russell - the latter setting its quickest time - taking the wheel.

Zdroj: autosport.com