F1 Pre-Season Testing 2018: Lewis Hamilton Sets Fastest Lap Time on Final Day

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap on the fourth and final day of Formula One pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Thursday.

Using medium tyres on a wet track, Hamilton finished quicker than McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne, who was one of only two drivers to complete over 100 laps. 

Hamilton saw his first attempt to set the fastest lap deleted when he missed the chicane, ruling out a time a tenth of a second quicker than Vandoorne.

The track's official Twitter account relayed the final times for the day:

Unlike Hamilton, Vandoorne used hypersofts on a day of testing weather conditions, albeit a day that ran smoother than Wednesday, when snow-enforced delays prolonged testing.

Earlier in the morning session, Sergey Sirotkin caught the eye driving for Williams, but it was a different story for Marcus Ericsson. The Swedish Sauber driver prompted a red flag after he skidded off what was still a slick and treacherous track.

Here is footage of Ericsson's tumble, per the official F1 Twitter account:

Eventually, Ericsson completed a solid morning's testing. Sauber tweeted how their man had gained experience on various tyres:

The morning session was bossed by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes at the intermediate stage. Like the latter, Bottas ended the session pleased with his morning's work:

However, moving to hypersofts soon helped Vandoorne deal better with wet track and set the fastest lap. Hamilton's chicane blunder meant McLaren still topped the leaderboard late in the session.

There was another red flag when Max Verstappen spun into the gravel on the 12th turn. Verstappen's gaffe was part of a largely disappointing day for Red Bull Racing.

Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez returned to the track when the green flag was lifted again. it was Alonso who challenged his McLaren team-mate's fastest time in the afternoon session, when he clocked a lap of one minute, 20.929 seconds, barely a second slower than Vandoorne.

McLaren director Eric Bouille explained why his team had trusted the hypersofts, per Sky Sports F1:

Bouille's team had enjoyed a fantastic day, but the true statement was made by Hamilton and Mercedes, after the 33-year-old posted a fastest lap of 1:19.333. The fact he achieved it on medium tyres only made the time more impressive, offering yet another reminder of the quality of the Mercedes vehicles.

Speaking of good cars, Toro Rosso's vehicle, complete with Honda engine, carried Pierre Gasly to 116 laps, the most of the day. Meanwhile, Haas F1's Kevin Magnussen moved up to third after switching to the supersofts.

Vettel was back out, but he couldn't match or surpass Hamilton's time, even though he was driving in the soft tyres. Yet the Ferrari man still managed to end the session in third.

Patrik Lundin/Getty Images

A third red flag of the day briefly delayed proceedings ahead of the final half hour. When testing resumed, there were no major challenges to Hamilton's time.

Last season's champion has laid down an early marker, showing off the speed and handling of his car to prove difficult conditions aren't enough to slow down Mercedes' dominance of F1.