Barcelona day 4: Hamilton at the top, Verstappen finished early

Lewis Hamilton had not ridden much earlier this week - only 25 laps - but the defending champion reduced the damage on Thursday with 68 laps and the fastest time. The last day of the first test week was for the teams about reducing the damage done by the lost time lost time.

The Wednesday was also lost, because of snow and other bad weather, with eventually only five drivers who did their laps. It meant that quite a few drivers had to share their cars on Thursday, to give test time to teammates who could not or hardly drove on Wednesday. At Mercedes, McLaren, Williams, Renault and Sauber, both drivers stepped in.

From the moment the light jumped green on the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, there were heavy rides, initially on rain tires on a still wet track. The Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne was able to make the largest kilometer in the beginning and was long at the top of the timing list. As the track dried up, other drivers also surfaced and that changed at the head of the timing table.

Max Verstappen was at P1 at lunchtime (although there was no lunch break). The Dutchman had finished a lap in Barcelona in 1: 33.016 on intermediates, with what was his first timed lap. The Red Bull driver drove a small number of laps in the morning hours and - after Valtteri Bottas almost immediately took the first place.

An hour later Bottas sharpened his fastest time, on slicks. Mediums in that case. Vandoorne later came out on hypersofts, the softest Pirelli compound, and retrieved P1. After a brief trip through the gravel, he handed over the steering wheel to teammate Fernando Alonso for the later afternoon hours, which had only eleven laps on Wednesday - although that was still the most of all drivers back then.

At Mercedes, Hamilton took over the W09 from Bottas. After he saw a quickest lap time before cutting off the chicane, he took Vandoorne's lead position one hour before the end. Hamilton clocked up 1: 19.333 on mediums, compared to 1: 19.854 for the Belgium on hypersofts.

Verstappen had caused a red flag just before this. After a run on mediums he switched to softs and got a 1: 22.058 on the bells, but one lap later he suddenly found himself in the gravel. The reason is not yet clear, Verstappen later told the British journalist Chris Medland. The Red Bull had to be pulled away. Verstappen stayed on 35 laps (the least of all) and ninth place.

In the morning hours Saubers Marcus Ericsson also had a red flag. About half an hour before the end there was another one, for unclear reason. There was still driving when the green flag went out again, but Hamilton's fastest time was no longer improved.

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