Kvyat uses soft C5 tires to top Day 3 in Barcelona (Update)

Kvyat in the Toro Rosso

UPDATE This story has been updated with quotes and photos. And of course check out our full page of photos from Day 3 in Barcelona.

02/20/19 Using the softest tires Pirelli makes, Daniil Kvyat topped the third day of Formula 1 pre-season testing for Toro Rosso after edging out Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen who also used the soft C5 tires.

Taking advantage of 'happy hour' temperatures, Kvyat managed to put in a late effort of 1m17.704s to take top spot for Wednesday’s running, setting the fastest time of pre-season so far in the process.

Raikkonen ending the day 0.058 seconds back in the Alfa Romeo C38 with 138 laps on the board.

Daniel Ricciardo, using the 2nd softest C4 tires was P3 for Renault.

Monday pace-setter Sebastian Vettel ended the day fourth for Ferrari, with the team curtailing its running before the end of the day. Vettel managed 134 laps in total in the SF90, and will return to the car next week as Charles Leclerc closes out the first test on Thursday. Max Verstappen took 5th for Red Bull with 109 laps completed.

Haas had a difficult day as it caused all three red flags that interrupted running due to stoppages with the VF-19 car. Pietro Fittipaldi stopped once in the morning before handing over to Romain Grosjean in the afternoon. Grosjean came to a halt twice on-track – once in the first hour, and once with five minutes left on the clock due to a loss of hydraulic pressure – sparking two red flags. Grosjean ended the day P7 overall ahead of Fittipaldi in P8 but Grosjean used softer tires than Fittipaldi, so Fittipaldi was actually the faster driver.

The Mercedes team continues to sandbag while the hapless Williams designed by Paddy Lowe was out to lunch and dead last. The team claims all the new parts were not on the car.

Quotes

Kimi Raikkonen

Daniil Kvyat:
“We lacked some running on Day 1, so we definitely bounced back today. It was important for us to do as many laps as possible and complete the program. We managed to do so and we even managed to squeeze in some extra kilometers, which made it a very productive day. The guys in the garage should be happy with the job they’ve done, we need to continue this high level of work to get as much mileage as possible and gain confidence together. I’m comfortable with the car and every time I’m on track I have a better feeling of what the car will do, which is nice. As a team we always want to do more, so if we had the chance to do 200 laps I would take it, even if my neck probably wouldn’t enjoy it! Now it’s important to go on working hard, without getting caught up with where we finished on the timesheets – even if it’s quite pleasant to end up where we did. We need to keep focussing on the job we’re doing with the car and make sure we’re heading in the right direction. It’s early days, but a good start is always welcome.

Kimi Raikkonen:
“It was another good day for us. We made progress with the car and put in solid lap times. I feel comfortable with the car. Things are looking positive and I look forward to being back on track next week."

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel
“It was good to be back in the car today and put some more mileage under my belt. Again, we had a busy day and managed to complete our program, which included a few new items, compared to Monday. We tried a few things around also focusing on set-up and I can only confirm the positive impression I had on day one. Having now put 303 laps in the bag I feel comfortable to say we are satisfied with how the car is progressing."

Valtteri Bottas
Similar to the last two days, we did some more aero measurements in the morning. After that we completed a full race distance for the first time in the new car, 66 laps in a row without any issues. We're learning more and more about the W10 and it again felt better than the day before. There's still room for improvement, but we're making progress every day.

Lewis Hamilton:
We got a lot of mileage in again today, both Valtteri and myself completed a whole race distance, so it's been a good day for reliability. We have been digging deep, trying to understand the car, pretty much the same as the beginning of every year. I love that challenge of coming back each year; getting into a new car is like meeting someone new – you don't know the good and bad and the journey you go on with that car is a real privileged position. It's crazy to think this is my seventh season with the team, and this looks like it is going to be the most challenging year of our partnership so I'm super excited. I love racing so nothing really changes there.

James Allison (R)

James Allison
Both drivers completed trouble-free race distances today and it was another very productive day for us in terms of knowing how hard we can lean on the tires in these conditions. It's all part of building the foundation for the week that will follow and it's good to have those race distances tucked away so early in the test, leaving us able to focus a little bit more on performance tomorrow, but most of that work will come in the following week.

Sergio Perez:
“We made good progress today and I feel we took another step forward. The day was a bit shorter than we expected because we had a small issue with the car late in the afternoon. I lost drive but was able to recover to the pits. So we couldn’t complete all of our program, but I feel we’re still improving as we get to know the car. I’ve done two days in the car now and I’m generally feeling happy. The balance was good from day one and that’s important. I’m not testing again until next week, but if we keep working like this I will be happy with my preparations for Melbourne."

George Russell

Paddy Lowe, Chief Technical Officer:
It’s very disappointing to miss two days of this first test in Barcelona, but we are very happy today that we got the car out for the afternoon session. We were late but not for the lack of incredible effort from the whole team both in the factory and here in the garage. We spent the afternoon doing a number of systems checks and various data gathering programs without any significant reliability issues, so we are happy with that as a first look at the FW42. This puts us in good shape to get down to some more significant programs starting tomorrow morning. We have missed a lot of time, but we are looking forward at this stage and we will make the very best use of the five days remaining of winter testing. Thank you to all the staff for their teamwork and dedication in getting this car out today.

George Russell:
It was amazing to finally drive the FW42. Today we focused purely on install laps, shaking the car down and data gathering. Our focus was not on performance runs so I can’t judge the overall potential of the car, but I’m excited that we will get a full day of running tomorrow.

Day 3 Final Times

C1 = hardest tires
C5 = softest tires