Barcelona F1 test day four
Live Text
Sort by
Twitter
Hulkenberg, Ericsson and Vettel keep improving, as you'd expect with a near-dry track and tyres that are starting to heat up.
Vettel's first slick lap puts him seventh, but still nine seconds off.
Stopwatch
Hulkenberg goes fastest on his softs, with Ericsson moving up to third.
Ericsson has taken a little while to get up to speed on those slicks, but he improves now to go fifth.
It's been a long time since we've seen the Ferrari, as highlighted by the fact Vettel is currently 13 seconds off the pace on the timing screens.
Ericsson is circulating on super-softs, and Vettel leaves the garage on softs. More slick-tyre action to come.
Bottas pits, as he and Hulkenberg sit comfortably at the top of the pile with the only slick times so far.
Stopwatch
Both drivers find more time, but Bottas more so - a 1m22.789s puts him 0.673s clear.
Just the slick-shod top two on track now. Hulkenberg improves to a 1m24.433s, a tenth slower than Bottas.
Perez's appearance on track was a brief one. He was on inters, so perhaps he's about to change to slicks and head back out. Either way, the Mexican is currently last and only has 11 laps to his name.
Twitter
Stopwatch
Bottas improves to a 1m24.319s, 0.785s up on Hulkenberg.
Perez is back on track after spending an hour in the garage.
Bottas goes quicker still with a 1m24.722s, which is 0.382s quicker than Hulkenberg's latest effort.
Gasly, still plugging away on inters, goes second ahead of Hulkenberg with a 1m26.464s.
Stopwatch
Just as we hit 1pm local time, Hulkenberg takes the top spot with a 1m26.604s. Moments later, Bottas goes even better with a 1m25.945s.
Vandoorne is currently fourth and is yet to switch to slicks
Hulkenberg follows the slick trend with a set of softs.
Ooh-err! Bottas falls 0.010s shy of Gasly with that effort, but has two purple sectors. Either way, slicks are clearly the way to go.
Vandoorne jumps to fourth on a 1m29.810s. He's still on inters.
Stopwatch
Gasly hits back with a 1m27.350s, a scant 0.012s faster than Verstappen. Bottas has set a purple first sector.
Twitter
Stopwatch
Verstappen deposes Gasly with a 1m27.362s. Bottas's first flyer on slicks was in the 1m34s.
Stopwatch
Gasly, however, has taken over the top spot now with a 1m28.468s in the Toro Rosso. He's still on inters.
At last! Bottas has bolted on slicks, mediums to be exact.
Bottas is straight back out on track, we'll check what tyres he's on next time by.
Stopwatch
And there he goes, a 1m29.061s puts Verstappen 0.267s clear of Bottas. Ericsson goes third with a 1m30.118s.
Bottas has pitted the Mercedes, Verstappen looking good to take top spot shortly...
Verstappen improves to a 1m29.673s, a little over three tenths off Bottas's benchmark.
Stopwatch
Bottas has lowered the bar fractionally to a 1m29.328s now.
Twitter
Everyone on track - that's the top six - is improving practically every lap now. It's Bottas from Verstappen, Ericsson, Gasly, Vandoorne and Sirotkin right now.
Stopwatch
New best of the morning from Bottas, a 1m29.389s.
Ericsson now moves up to second on a 1m30.398s.
The times are coming in almost too quickly for us to keep up with now! Verstappen goes second on a 1m30.474s, less than half a second slower than Bottas, while Sirotkin has jumped to sixth.
Now Ericsson goes second on a 1m31.004s, clearing Gasly and Vandoorne.
Stopwatch
Bottas getting very near the 90-second barrier with a 1m30.023s.
Seconds later, Vandoorne improves to a 1m31.558s and takes third off Ericsson.
Undoubtedly, Gasly's French fans will be thrilled with that lap for second (Sutton Images)
By: Geoff Creighton
Published:
Lap:
