F1 Pre-Season Testing 2019: Friday Times and Analysis from Barcelona

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel topped the timesheets on the final morning of Formula One pre-season testing on Friday.

His lap of one minute, 16.221 seconds was the fastest of testing so far at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, an improvement on the benchmark set by Vettel's team-mate, Charles Leclerc, on Thursday.

It was a further hint that Ferrari could be the team to beat this year in the world championship, although Valtteri Bottas was second-fastest in his Mercedes with a lap of 1:16.561.

McLaren had another decent morning as they continued their positive form in testing. Carlos Sainz finished fourth on the timesheets with a 1:16.913, just behind Daniil Kvyat in the Toro Rosso:

Mercedes, the reigning world champions, have been largely quiet so far in pre-season testing, although both Bottas and Lewis Hamilton have been getting plenty of laps under their belts:

Again the Finn was productive on Friday morning, clocking the second-most laps of any driver with 71, but he also showed some pace.

As former driver Karun Chandhok noted, Bottas' times as he went through the tyres were similar to Leclerc in his productive morning session on Thursday:

It was Vettel who set the new benchmark, though, at the peak of an excellent morning's work from the four-time world champion, and Hamilton said during the action that Ferrari look to have the edge on Mercedes in terms of pace:

Given Vettel and Leclerc hold the two fastest times of pre-season testing, with Bottas' fastest Friday time in third, it is hard to argue with that assertion.

Elsewhere, there were late issues for Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen, who prematurely ended the morning's action by drawing a red flag when he ground to a halt at the side of the track.

The former Ferrari man's best time of the morning was a 1:17.239, putting him seventh-fastest behind Romain Grosjean in the Haas and Daniel Ricciardo's Renault.