Barcelona F1 test day four
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Kubica improves again, this could almost be described as competitive. It's a 1m23.380s.
Giovinazzi has improved immediately on the C3 tyre to fifth with a 1m19.593s.
Here's that moment from a little earlier where Hamilton was caught off guard by Kubica's Williams
WILLIAMS IS BACK! Kubica is on the C3 tyre, and while it is still last, Kubica's lap was a 1m24.902s. Comfortably its best lap so far.
That's an improvement for Norris, it's a 1m20.260s on the softest tyre, the C5.
Kubica has set what looks like Williams's first competitive sector time.
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Grosjean sets personal bests in the first two sectors, but couldn't turn that into an improved lap time.
Stroll and Giovinazzi are out for Racing Point and Alfa Romeo respectively.
Leclerc pits after that long run. He completed 12 laps on the C3, with a fastest time of 1m18.475s and at the end of the run, a 1m21.640s.
Third place on the timing screens, Grosjean returns to the track.
Lando Norris is back on track for McLaren, wearing the C4 tyres.
Albon moves from eighth to fifth on the leaderboard, with a 1m19.763s on the C4 tyre.
Albon is on the C4 tyre and this lap is looking good.
Albon is out to add to the Toro Rosso lap count. It has lapped equal fewest times so far, with Williams.
Information
Hamilton is up to 23 laps for the morning with that latest run. Here's the full run down of totals so far:
Leclerc - 41
Grosjean - 33
Ricciardo - 25
Hamilton - 23
Giovinazzi - 20
Stroll - 18
Gasly - 16
Norris - 17
Kubica - 15
Albon - 14
Leclerc - 41
Grosjean - 33
Ricciardo - 25
Hamilton - 23
Giovinazzi - 20
Stroll - 18
Gasly - 16
Norris - 17
Kubica - 15
Albon - 14
We've just seen a replay of Hamilton having a moment at the entry to the final chicane, which probably caused his poor final sector. Doesn't explain the time lost in the middle, though.
Hamilton pitted after that moment.
Hamilton pitted after that moment.
Leclerc is still going strong on his C3 tyre. The last lap was a 1m21.739s, on his eighth lap of this run.
In fact, the last sector was poor, too.
But a poor middle sector and average final sector mean Hamilton doesn't improve.
Hamilton sets a session-best time in the first sector on the C4.
The world champion was certainly pushing on that lap. Exiting the final chicane he showed little regard for the yellow sausage kerb that tries to control how wide the drivers can run. Leclerc is still going on this C3 run, now doing 1m20.3s.
Stopwatch
Hamilton goes fastest using the C4 tyres with a 1m18.337s.
Alert: We've spotted red tyre markings on Hamilton's Mercedes. C4 tyres. This run could be one to watch.
1m19.1s for Leclerc next time by. The fact he isn't doing slow laps between these attempts - to cool the tyres and recharge the battery - suggests this is more of a race-style run that just happened to start off quite fast.
It's another 1m18.8s for Leclerc, who again lost six tenths in the final sector. He had Ricciardo in front of him (who has now pitted) but it didn't look like the Renault particularly got in his way.
Leclerc puts in a new fastest middle sector, but he drops six tenths in the final part of the lap and crosses the line with a 1m18.8s. He's having another go now.
Kubica makes another incidental improvement on his latest low-speed run - 1m46.262s.
Leclerc is back out, trying to get some temperature into a set of C3 tyres. Are we about to see a new fastest time of the morning?
The Racing Point got out of shape at Turn 13, and after coming to a halt facing the wrong way. Stroll has got going again and returned to the pits.
Crash
Stroll spins at the chicane!
Stroll moves up to fifth with a 1m20.1s on C3 tyres, while ahead of him Ricciardo in fourth improves to a 1m18.9s, also on the C3.
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Autosport
As it stands, then, it’s still Ferrari’s young challenger who heads Mercedes’ reigning champion in the order. But Hamilton has warned against making any grand expectations about Leclerc’s 2019 campaign, saying it would be unfair to expect a title challenge from the Monegasque in his first year at Ferrari 
Hamilton pits after a short run where we were robbed from seeing a bit more pace from the Mercedes.
We've also got Albon setting personal bests in the Toro Rosso, which is currently eighth in the order using the C3 tyres.
It's only a one tenth improvement for Hamilton, who gave away a little bit of time in the final sector. We're left wondering what might have been if he'd not encountered the Williams on his first attempt on this C3-tyre run.
Two fastest sectors overall for Hamilton...
Hamilton backs off by a few seconds next time around after that Williams near-miss, and now he's pushing again.
By: Geoff Creighton
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