Kvyat and Toro Rosso fastest on Wednesday in Barcelona

Established Wednesday morning by Kimi Räikkönen in 1:17.762, the new benchmark for these 2019 pre-season tests was further improved in the afternoon by Daniil Kvyat driving the Toro Rosso. 

The Russian ghost takes advantage of the softest C5 compound in the Pirelli range to set a time at the end of the day and lower the time to 1:17.704. Kvyat is thus ahead of Räikkönen, whose Alfa C38 also ran on C5 tires during his best attempt. The two men finished with almost the same number of laps on the clock: 137 for the leader of the day against 138 for his runner-up. 

The third day of action on track was also marked by repeated mechanical problems at Haas where the test pilot Pietro Fittipaldi, in the morning, then Romain Grosjean, in the afternoon, stopped on the track several times. The Frenchman notably suffered a loss of hydraulic pressure at the very end of the day. The American team has already planned to allow Grosjean to make up for some of the lost time by lining him up on Thursday morning as well. 

Wednesday's Top 3 is completed by Daniel Ricciardo, who took over from his teammate Nico Hulkenberg behind the wheel of the RS19 after the lunch break. The Australian was equipped with the C4 compound when he signed his best mark. 

Dominant during the first day of driving, Sebastian Vettel ensures a solid 4th time with the yellow C3 compound (medium) and completes 134 more laps, which are added to the 169 covered on Monday aboard a Ferrari SF90 which still makes a strong impression.

Max Verstappen also eclipses the 100 lap mark with its Red Bull RB15 and finally ranks 6th, ahead of Hülkenberg and Grosjean. On the track in the morning, Fittipaldi finished in 8th place. 

Due to changes made to the McLaren MCL34 between Tuesday and Wednesday, Carlos Sainz only took to the track around 11am this morning. The Spaniard still managed to complete 90 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and found himself credited with the 9th time. 

Sergio Pérez is 10th and precedes the two drivers Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas before Lewis Hamilton, who once again took turns at the wheel of the W10. Both signed their best mark with Pirelli's C3 compound, although the British five-time world champion spent much of the afternoon testing Pirelli prototypes which bear no markings. 

Expected since Monday, the Williams FW42 finally made its track debut in the afternoon of the third day of winter testing. George Russell first did a series of installation laps before setting a time that was far from the day's benchmark but not very representative given the complicated birth of Grove's new machine. 

The first week of on-track action in Barcelona ends on Thursday. You will again be able to follow the evolution of the times by live commentary via our live text.