Barcelona F1 test day four
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Ferrari looks to be setting up its pit gantry - maybe some pitstop practice is in the plan before Vettel goes home. We sometimes see race simulations from the most-prepared teams at test one, although with 1h51m left on the clock time is probably too tight to start one now.
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Here's a little bit of insight on Pirelli's new range of tyres from its racing manager Mario Isola, which BEN ANDERSON hopes might answer some of his namesake GARY's questions from 10 minutes ago...
"Moving all the compounds one step softer – and the selection will follow the same approach – means warm up will be less of an issue but potentially there is a higher risk of overheating. To reduce this effect and to reduce blistering as well, we have designed compounds with a higher resistance to temperature.
"The working range philosophy is also changed with decreasing working ranges from the medium to the hypersoft compounds, instead of alternating high and low working range compounds as in previous years. This should make compounds easier to use.
"Last but not least, new compounds have been developed starting from last year's soft - the compound with the widest working range - with the target to enlarge working range also for the other compounds."
"Moving all the compounds one step softer – and the selection will follow the same approach – means warm up will be less of an issue but potentially there is a higher risk of overheating. To reduce this effect and to reduce blistering as well, we have designed compounds with a higher resistance to temperature.
"The working range philosophy is also changed with decreasing working ranges from the medium to the hypersoft compounds, instead of alternating high and low working range compounds as in previous years. This should make compounds easier to use.
"Last but not least, new compounds have been developed starting from last year's soft - the compound with the widest working range - with the target to enlarge working range also for the other compounds."
Alonso climbs to fourth. His next targets are Hamilton and Vettel.
Alonso in action (LAT Images)
Alonso moves up to sixth with his next effort, 1.4s down on the pace set by his team-mate.
Relief all round - Alonso's transponder data updates. He's ninth right now, and the 15th driver to appear today. It's been a long time since we've seen this many in action on the same day during the one-car-per-team era of testing.
Alonso is out on supersofts, lapping in the low 1m23s. The transponder hasn't updated on the McLaren, so tracking his lap times is going to be a huge challenge for anyone unfortunate enough to be providing live coverage of this test. Oh, wait...
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Crash
Hamilton has had his fastest lap deleted for missing the chicane at the end of the lap. Vandoorne back on top.
Gary Anderson
I don’t quite understand why McLaren was doing so much using the hypersoft. If it’s me with a new range of tyres you’d pick the tyre that would show up most regularly to do your work on. That’s probably the soft, so I don’t understand why you’d use supersofts and hypers so much. I also don’t understand why Mercedes is using the mediums so much, but it might be because those are low-temperature working range tyres.
The timing screens say Vandoorne has headed back out, but it's very clearly Alonso's blue crash helmet at the wheel of the McLaren now, adding to his team-mate's tally of 110 laps.
That's an interesting one from Hamilton - setting the fastest time of the day at the end of a long run on mediums. He now pits.
Stopwatch
Now Hamilton goes fastest - still on mediums - outpacing Vandoorne's earlier hypersoft effort. Mercedes on top with a 1m19.753s.
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Gary Anderson
It’s Interesting looking at ride heights on the main straight before the braking area for Turn 1. The Mercedes is relatively buried in the rear and of course isn’t one of the high rake cars even though it has increased that a little this year.
The Red Bull is pretty flat and the Ferrari is still rear-end up here which is interesting because in all my time the best solution for straightline speed is to get the rear as low as you can. So Ferrari is playing with its high rake package but I don't think it has got it sorted out mechanically yet. I’m sure there’s more straightline speed to come from Ferrari if it can get its rear down on the straight.
The Red Bull is pretty flat and the Ferrari is still rear-end up here which is interesting because in all my time the best solution for straightline speed is to get the rear as low as you can. So Ferrari is playing with its high rake package but I don't think it has got it sorted out mechanically yet. I’m sure there’s more straightline speed to come from Ferrari if it can get its rear down on the straight.
Sainz extends the gap to Stroll with another personal best of his own. He stays fifth, but he's now .0486s ahead of Stroll.
Just behind Sainz in the order, Stroll improves in the Williams.
Sainz backs off for a lap, then goes again, making a marginal improvement but staying fifth.
Here's Sainz charging through the chicane on his first run of the afternoon (LAT Images)
Sainz is on the move again, now jumping to fifth with a 1m21.844s.
Sainz climbs another place, this time at the expense of team-mate Hulkenberg, as the air temperature nears 16 degrees. Compared to the rest of the week, today is a scorcher.
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Sainz moves up to ninth as his first run of the day continues.
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No messing about from Sainz, who is straight into a run on softs and starts with a 1m23.4s to go 12th.
Medium-shod Hamilton on his way to second in the times (LAT Images)
Sainz makes his first appearance of the day in the Renault.
Stroll moves up to sixth with a 1m21.9s on softs.
'Only' a 1m20.2s for Hamilton next time by, while Leclerc improves again to move ahead of Verstappen for 10th.
Hamilton improves again, and this time he's under 1m20s with a 1m19.9s. He's 0.130s adrift of Vandoorne's best.
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At the other end of the standings Leclerc improves in the Sauber, moving ahead of team-mate Ericsson for 11th.
He improves again, with an overall best in the first sector, and personal best in the second sector. 1m20.324s.
Hamilton isn't done yet on this run by the looks of things...
Next time through Hamilton moves ahead of Vettel into second, and now he's only half a second behind Vandoorne, who is back out and running supersofts now.
Hamilton gets within a second of Vandoorne's hypersoft time with a 1m20.847s. He's still on mediums.
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Lap count:
Vandoorne 102
Ericsson 79
Gasly 72
Vettel 71
Bottas 60
Hulkenberg 49
Sirotkin 47
Magnussen 44
Verstappen 32
Perez 31
Hamilton 15
Stroll 12
Leclerc 6
Vandoorne 102
Ericsson 79
Gasly 72
Vettel 71
Bottas 60
Hulkenberg 49
Sirotkin 47
Magnussen 44
Verstappen 32
Perez 31
Hamilton 15
Stroll 12
Leclerc 6
By: Geoff Creighton
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