The seven-time world champion, who took over the car from his team-mate for the final afternoon of running, ended the day fastest with an unofficial 1:16.348, a time set on the soft compound.

Just behind him the newly crowned champion was Lando Norris, who also began to show early signs of performance with the MCL40 after McLaren skipping the opening days of testing.

The Brit also secured the fastest time overall across the entire test, edging out George Russell by the narrowest of margins after the Briton had reportedly stopped the clocks at 1:16.445 on day four.

Today also marked Fernando Alonso’s official debut behind the wheel of the AMR26, after Lance Stroll managed just five laps yesterday before parking the car at the pit exit.

The Spaniard enjoyed significantly more running today, although the programme remained firmly focused away from outright performance.

It was also a very strong day for Haas in terms of mileage, with Oliver Bearman completing an impressive 105 laps. Audi, meanwhile, finally managed to piece together a solid day of running after two days plagued by various technical issues, racking up a far more representative lap count.

Max Verstappen was also back on track in the afternoon, with the latter returning to action after Isack Hadjar’s incident late on day two.