The former Ferrari man Carlos Sainz seems to have seamlessly fit into his new Williams as the Spaniard managed to get to the top of the timesheets with a time of 1m 29.348s and he has also recorded the highest lap count so far of 127 after being the only Williams on track for the Thursday sessions.
The sessions were again crash free, however, Sainz himself had a little spin and so did Leclerc once the rain started to fall on the circuit in the morning.
Hamilton was getting along quite well in his Ferrari, with the Britain setting the second quickest time. He was followed by his teammate Charles Leclerc in third. The Mercedes duo of Russell and Antonelli finished fourth and fifth respectively, and Stroll slid in behind them. The only Red Bull on track, Liam Lawson set a time that gave him seventh, after the car was having some water system troubles at the start of the day. He was followed by Jack Doohan in the Alpine, with the second Alpine driver, Gasly, and Hadjar rounding out the top 10. Fernando Alonso fit into eleventh place while Yuki Tsunoda set the twelfth fastest time. The Mclarens only managed thirteenth and fourteenth, with Piastri ahead of his teammate Lando Norris. Bortoleto and Hulkenberg were fifteenth and sixteenth, and the Haas team of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman were in seventeenth and eighteenth (though we can’t forget they have yet to show what their car is really made of).
The sessions came to a close after the procedural checks for the FIA that included a simulation formation lap and practice start. The final day of Pre-Season testing will begin tomorrow at the same time.
