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

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest time of Formula One pre-season testing so far on Thursday morning, surging to the top of the timesheets in Barcelona, Spain.

With a host of cars donning the supersoft and ultrasoft tyres—the quickest compounds—the Finn posted a time of one minute, 22.765 seconds in the day’s opening session, around half-a-second quicker than his nearest competitors. 

Mercedes resisted the urge to try out the quick compound, with Nico Rosberg sticking to the medium tyres and getting more laps under his belt than anyone else during the morning. Lewis Hamilton employed a similar approach in the afternoon, as no one came even close to overtaking Raikkonen at the top of the timesheets.

Here are the key numbers from the day in Barcelona and a recap of what was an encouraging session for Ferrari.

Afternoon Recap

As expected, most of the teams opted to try their hand at long runs and race simulations during the afternoon session, and Raikkonen's top time was never truly threatened.

Here's a look at the full timesheet, courtesy of Formula 1's official Twitter account:

This year's Barcelona test has been all about reliability, and once again, most of the teams walked away from their afternoon session with a good feeling on Thursday. The majority crossed the 100-lap barrier with relative ease, and for the first time in pre-season, Mercedes did not lead the mileage charts, via F1 Paddock Access:

Max Verstappen failed to get under the 1:23 mark on the ultrasoft tyres but more than made up for it during his long runs, making the most of the medium tyres. The youngster will look to build on his promising 2015 campaign, and so far, he has looked very solid in pre-season testing.

Raikkonen looked very fast in his Ferrari during the morning session, but he stole the show for an entirely different reason after lunch. The Fin tested the new "halo" device set to improve driver safety, as shared by BBC Sport:

F1 Grid shared this view from the cockpit:

Lewis Hamilton focused on race simulations and never played a role in the timesheets, while Romain Grosjean's struggles continued into the afternoon, as he caused another red flag just before the end of the session, his third of the day.The Frenchman lost control in Turn 10 and steered his Haas into the gravel.

Crash.net's Ollie Barstow was impressed Grosjean still managed to clock 78 laps:

Felipe Massa went fastest during the afternoon session, rising up to second place behind Raikkonen.

Morning Recap

Here is the classification from an absorbing morning stint in Jerez, as we were treated to some searing pace from the drivers on show:

Ferrari gave the most promising indication yet that they could potentially compete with Mercedes this season, as Raikkonen posted a brilliant lap on the ultrasoft compound.

As Formula One journalist James Allen showed us, the former world champion certainly wasn’t holding anything back on the purple-trimmed tyre:

The mark of 1:22.765 was just 0.045 seconds faster than his team-mate Sebastian Vettel was able to manage on the same tyre in the opening week of testing. It bodes well for those who want to see competition at the front of the grid, with the Italian outfit clearly in possession of the raw speed needed to trouble the world champions.

Here’s a look at the Ferrari in action in the session, per the Formula One Twitter feed:

Mercedes did not opt for the fastest tyre in the morning and have yet to use either the ultrasoft or supersoft compound, making it tricky to form a full comparison between the two teams.

We will likely see them do so before testing concludes on Friday, but on the soft tyre, Raikkonen was also able to better the fastest time set by a Mercedes driver in testing, with a mark of 1:23.009.

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

On Thursday morning, once again, Rosberg got through a lot of distance on the medium compound, with Mercedes keen to accrue vital data even on the penultimate day of testing; the German racked up a mammoth 81 laps before lunch.

As we can see courtesy of the Mercedes Twitter feed, their attentions weren’t focused on getting to the top of the standings on the day, as they sought to practice other aspects:

Their focus elsewhere left other teams with a chance to challenge at the top, with drivers looking to push their cars harder on quicker tyres with time running out in testing.

Grosjean pushed a little too hard late on in the session, though. In what was an otherwise incident-free morning, the Haas driver found himself off the circuit at Turn 4 with just seconds remaining before lunch.

Dan Istitene/Getty Images

After a miserable Wednesday, when Haas were unable to set a time, it was the last thing the debutants needed, and as F1 Paddock Access suggested, it'll be interesting to see what shape they are in later this afternoon:

Both Nico Hulkenberg and Verstappen, two drivers who have shown glimpses of real quality during pre-season, both dipped under 1:24 in the morning, with their teams also giving them license to push on the ultrasofts. 

With Rosberg in fourth, next in the pecking order was Sauber’s Felipe Nasr in fifth, while McLaren’s inconsistencies continued, as they had a positive session with Fernando Alonso in the cockpit, finishing in sixth after he also had a stint on the softer tyres.