Sainz best time on Wednesday morning, Ferrari at a standstill

A pilot McLaren chasing another at the top of the timesheet. Best time on Tuesday won by Lando Norris, his teammate Carlos Sainz responded with a new absolute reference time in the 2019 collective tests.

The Spaniard was riding Pirelli's red C4 compound when he set his time of 1'17''144 to dethrone Nico Hulkenberg which held the head of the cumulative ranking since last Thursday. Like yesterday with Norris, the McLaren however suffered a technical problem shortly after setting the clock, Sainz having to stop due to a loss of water pressure. 

In the hierarchy of the day, the Madrilenian is comfortably ahead of Ferrari de Sebastian Vettel, shod with yellow C3 tires when registering his best mark. The German caused a session interruption of around forty minutes at the end of the morning when he went out at turn 3, victim of a mechanical problem. 

The Scuderia has already announced that it will take several hours before the SF90 returns to the track. Charles Leclerc is supposed to succeed his German teammate in the afternoon.  

Before his swerve into the gravel, ending in the safety barriers, Vettel had completed 40 laps and set a time of 1'18''195. The four-time world champion precedes the Red Bull-Honda Max Verstappen, which continues to display good consistency with 69 laps on the clock. 

Mercedes, who has not seemed as dominant as in the past so far, takes the 4th best time at midday via Valtteri Bottas. The Finn, whose driving on Tuesday afternoon was limited by a change of power unit, was able to complete 75 laps without problem. He will pass the baton to his teammate Lewis Hamilton this afternoon. 

In the following four tenths, we find the Toro Rosso-Honda of Daniil Kvyat, the Alfa-Ferrari of Kimi Räikkönen, the Racing Point-Mercedes of Sergio Pérez, and the Williams-Mercedes by Robert Kubica. The Pole, however, set his best time on the softer red C5 compound when the drivers in front of him were running on C3 compounds, supposed to be 1,2s slower according to figures given by Pirelli. 

Romain Grosjean et Daniel Ricciardo bring up the rear for the moment, the pilots Haas et Renault having evolved mainly with the harder white C2 rubbers. 

The second day of the second week of winter testing will resume at 14:00 p.m. in Barcelona. She will always be followed in live commentary via our live-text. 

It's lunchtime and that can only mean one thing. It's time to take a look at who's been doing what so far today. # F1testing @F1 # Fit4F1 pic.twitter.com/Rt3bjiFxq8

- Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) February 27, 2019