Formula 1 Pre-Season Testing 2016: Times and Thursday Report from Barcelona

Ferrari were the fastest team on the track on Day 4 of Formula One pre-season testing in Barcelona on Thursday, with Kimi Raikkonen enjoying a much better start than he had on Wednesday.  

The Finn also stayed in charge during the afternoon session, even though his pace wasn't as seamless as it had been during morning testing. But he clearly enjoyed his stint in Jerez, as he raced to the top of the time sheets, after being unable to post a timed lap before the interval on Day 3.

Raikkonen had a blast on the ultra-soft tyre compound in the morning, putting him a whopping 1.786 seconds clear of his nearest competitor. Red Bull's Daniil Kvyat also enjoyed his day, while the workload of the Mercedes vehicles also drew plenty of admiration.

Here’s a look back at the final sessions of this stint of testing.

Afternoon Recap

Here's how the classification looked like at the end of the afternoon session, per F1.com:

While Raikkonen enjoyed his day's work, it was one of disappointment for McLaren. Technical difficulties from the morning session persisted in the afternoon, with the team still struggling to get Fernando Alonso onto the track. Those delays added up to a very frustrating session for the Spaniard.

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But Alonso wasn't the only driver to experience the bane of technical issues. Esteban Gutierrez and his new Haas car were also brought to a stop.

But while others toiled, Raikkonen and Kvyat continued cramming in fast laps. The latter kept pace well for Red Bull, but Ferrari's greater speed was always evident.

There was also room for Force India's Alfonso Celis to make a late impression. The Mexican drove himself into the third-fastest time after using super-soft tyres to gain greater acceleration on the track.

But even though the leading trio impressed, Mercedes vehicles again showed their mettle as the sport's dominant force. Lewis Hamilton had already set a fine mark in the morning but, not to be outdone, teammate Nico Rosberg pushed for more, according to the F1 official site:

As BBC Sport's Andrew Benson noted after the morning session, Mercedes' workload demanded respect:

Sky Sports' William Esler expressed a similar sentiment as he watched Rosberg:

Rosberg didn't quite reach that mark, but the German still demonstrated the stamina to tot up an impressive number of laps. It's a clear indicator of his fitness for the competition with Hamilton once the races start to count.

Ultimately though, the day belonged to Raikkonen and Ferrari. The team claimed the fastest lap on all but one day of testing, a testament to the speed of the cars and the response of those track-friendly soft tyres.

Whether this signals a legitimate challenge for Mercedes in the season proper remains to be seen, however. Hamilton and Rosberg will no doubt trust the power, durability and reliability of their cars to again win out over the long haul.

Morning Recap

Here is how the drivers first up fared on Thursday, with Ferrari setting the pace following their dart on the purple-trimmed tyres, per the F1 Twitter feed:

Ferrari have showed some very encouraging pace all week, and they opted to push this car to its maximum in the morning, with Raikkonen getting a chance to run on the softs.

The Finn duly obliged with some fine laps, the quickest being one minute, 23.477 seconds. It was a marker nobody else was able to get close to in the session. As we can see, courtesy of Sky Sports’ Esler, it was one of the fastest laps so far by anyone this week:

While Ferrari were lighting up the timing boards, Mercedes again opted for a quantity-over-quality approach, with world champion Hamilton putting in a mega 99 laps in the morning.

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Both Hamilton and his team-mate Rosberg have enjoyed plenty of time in the cockpit this week, with the former now up to 343 laps overall in the new W07. They were only the sixth quickest overall, but they were debuting a new nose on the vehicle that had plenty talking.

Formula One journalist Tobias Gruner provided images of the new technology and also noted another alteration made to the car when compared to last season:

Still, despite the serious nature of the testing, it didn’t stop Hamilton from playing a prank on his engineering team:

It was arguably the least productive session of the week for McLaren, as they were only able to get Alonso out on the track for three laps, with no time set at all. The team was suffering with a coolant leak, which meant the car spent most of the morning in the garage.

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BBC Sport's Benson provided some more details on the issues being suffered by the Honda team:

Kevin Magnussen, who will be driving for Renault this season, also impressed in the morning session, finishing as the second quickest overall for the second morning in a row.

There was also some more positive showings from teenager Max Verstappen in the Toro Rosso. Having endured a week of mixed fortunes, the 18-year-old was third quickest in the morning stint.