The third day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is over, bringing the first winter test to a close. Lewis Hamilton finished the day with the fastest time, followed by Mercedes newcomer George Russell. They are closely followed by Sergio Perez and world champion Max Verstappen.

Read the report of the morning session here!

Mercedes shows muscle in morning session

The last afternoon session of the test in Barcelona was heralded by statements regarding the Grand Prix of Russia. Formula 1 has chosen not to travel to Sochi in September due to the invasion of Ukraine. Nikita Mazepin also came up with a statement, although the Haas driver did not hint at much in it.

At the beginning of the afternoon it was time for testing the rain tires. There was also a changing of the guard among the Formula 1 teams: the drivers who didn't come into action in the morning stepped in during the afternoon session.

Due to the wet conditions on the track, nothing exciting happened yet in terms of fast times. A little later, the rain tires were exchanged for intermediates. Meanwhile, both Alpine and Haas F1 had to retire early due to repairs to their cars, which were damaged during the morning session.

Faster times on drying track

Halfway through the session the times started to get serious again, but Russell and Verstappen remained proudly at the top of the timesheet for a long time. Meanwhile Perez in particular was getting closer and closer, while Hamilton was still somewhat behind.

Towards the end of the day, however, it was the 37-year-old Briton who improved the fastest time of his brand new teammate by a tenth of a second. Perez was right on his heels, but failed to improve on Hamilton's fastest time.

The Mercedes driver not only set the fastest time, but together with Alexander Albon he also drove the most laps of all the drivers. Both drivers drove no less than 89 laps on the last test day. Carlos Sainz also came close with 87 laps, as did Daniel Ricciardo, who drove 81 laps. Verstappen drove 59 in the morning session.

Mercedes and Red Bull keep top four occupied

With that, the overall expectations of the winter test have come true. The top four is occupied so far by Mercedes and Red Bull Racing, but this does not yet guarantee the results in the next winter test in Bahrain and the first race weekend of the year. It is expected that rigorous changes will still be made at all Formula One teams.