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

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel finished the quickest on Friday in Barcelona, Spain, on the final day of 2016's pre-season winter testing.

The German set a fastest time of one minute, 22.852 seconds on supersoft tires in Jerez during the morning session, as he edged out Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz Jr. and Sergio Perez of Force India, who both finished within a second of the four-time world champion.

The trio were the only drivers to set a time of sub-1:24 during the morning, with Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth in his final pre-season outing for Mercedes—though a transmission problem stopped him on the main straight of the track to prompt a red flag just before lunch. His team-mate and rival Nico Rosberg focused on simulations during the afternoon session.

Felipe Massa also ducked under 1:24 in the afternoon, pushing his Williams into third place on the timesheets. Here is the classification and a closer look at Friday's action:

Afternoon Recap

Here's a look at the final results from Friday, courtesy of Formula 1's official Twitter account:

After clocking the fastest time during the morning session, Vettel continued to impress on Friday, leading the pack or drivers in laps during the long runs.

With Mercedes focusing on simulations and handing laps to both their drivers, Vettel didn't have to worry about the timesheets all that much. Instead, he took got the chance to run some simulations, as well as fiddly with the different tyre sets.

Vettel also tried his hand at the new 'halo,' device, and per NBC Sport's Luke Smith, the German is a proponent:

"

Well I think first of all to go around is OK. You can see what you need to see.

I think we can improve the system in terms of aesthetics and also in terms of how much visibly is in your way. Tested as well in the simulator and I think we will see probably evolutions of it very soon.

In principle, I agree it doesn’t look very nice. It’s not the picture you’re used to from Formula 1 for a long time, but equally it helps increasing the safety and helps saving lives.

There would be at least two drivers in the last four years that I remember that would still be around – Henry Surtees and Justin Wilson – if we had this type of system.

"

Toro Rosso have enjoyed an excellent pre-season, and the new car for the upcoming season is proving to be remarkably reliable. Sainz was one of the few drivers able to come close to Vettel's top time, albeit on the ultrasoft tyres, and he also cleared the 120-lap marl comfortably.

Manor recovered from their sloppy morning session, with Rio Haryanto clearing 50 laps on Friday, and Haas also found more success in the afternoon, with Grosjean making way for Esteban Gutierrez after 66 laps.

Per Formula 1's official Twitter account, Grosjean nearly went off the track again on Friday:

Mercedes will be favourites heading into the first grand prix of the season in Melbourne, but Ferrari will take plenty of positives from pre-season testing, and the Italians will like their chances of troubling the Silver Arrows in 2016.

Behind those two, the improved reliability of Toro Rosso and Force India should lead to a fantastic battle, with Williams and Red Bull also expected to do well.

Morning Recap

Here are the standings from Friday morning, per Formula One's official Twitter feed:

After Kimi Raikkonen's impressive showing in the penultimate day of testing on Thursday, Ferrari once again enjoyed another encouraging morning, as they look to reel in the dominant Mercedes.

Hamilton set the early benchmark with a 1:24.1 on the medium compound, but he was quickly replaced by Vettel at the top of the classification as the German went around in 1:23.5 on the soft.

A switch to the supersoft allowed the 28-year-old to extend his lead to over a second with the fastest time of the session, a lap that would not be bested despite the best efforts of the Englishman, Perez or Sainz—although the latter recorded his fastest time in pre-season.

Per F1 Paddock Access, Hamilton enjoyed a steady start to the morning before the mechanical failure prompted a disappointing end to his session:

Nevertheless, he was able to complete the most laps of any driver with 69.

Daniel Ricciardo was also able to produce a quick showing particularly in the first two hours of testing, as he was head of the chasing pack behind Hamilton prior to Vettel's surge to the top of the standings.

Here's the Red Bull driver impressing in Barcelona:

Haas' Romain Grosjean endured a difficult time on Thursday due to problems with the braking system, and he hoped his team would be able to fix the issue ahead of Friday's session, if not the first race of the season in Australia. Per Formula1.com, he said:

"

I think it will be solvable for Melbourne. We have really seen what the problem is—for the first time we know where it comes from—and for tomorrow [Friday] hopefully we'll have a fix.

This a very complicated system—we had the [same] issue at Lotus in 2014—and as the car is going quicker this week we are finding more issues with that system.

We really need to get on top of things, because it's hurting us in terms of preparation, performance and setting up the car.

"

The Frenchman had a more successful day on track on Friday as he shaved almost two seconds off Thursday's best lap, though he still finished ninth in the standings.

Jenson Button earned sixth place with his best time for McLaren in pre-season, while Renault's Jolyon Palmer endured a difficult and interrupted session as he managed just 27 laps.

Sauber's Marcus Ericsson came seventh with a 1:25.031, and Felipe Massa's Williams rounded out the top 10.