Raikkonen on top as McLaren, Renault hit by fresh unreliability pain

Kimi Raikkonen leads the timesheet for Ferrari midway through the final day of Formula 1 pre-season testing having gone for a qualifying simulation as McLaren and Renault each suffered a fresh setbacks.

Raikkonen shot to the top of the times during his qualifying simulation using Pirelli’s new hypersoft tyres ending the run with a best lap of 1m 17.221s to go within 0.039s of Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel’s new circuit record set on Thursday at Circuit de Catalunya.

But away from the top lap times there was further frustration at McLaren as Fernando Alonso pulled up with a mechanical issue with his Renault-powered MCL33 after just six laps. The two-time F1 world champion appeared to suffer a near-identical oil leak issue and came to a halt in the exact same spot at Turn 7 as his issue from Wednesday.

McLaren has confirmed an engine change in the hope of providing Alonso the chance for the final testing track time before the action concludes in Spain as F1 heads to the 2018 season opener in Australia later this month.

Renault also suffered with unreliability on the morning of the final day of F1 pre-season testing with a suspected gearbox problem restraining Carlos Sainz to just four laps.

It was another bright start to the day for Haas with Romain Grosjean taking second spot on the timesheet having run three short stints on the supersoft tyres with a best lap of 1m 18.500s.

Brendon Hartley continued to notch up the mileage for Toro Rosso Honda with over 90 laps in the morning and third on the times with a best effort of 1m 18.949s.

Lewis Hamilton suffered a red flag-truncated race simulations for Mercedes after the initial red flag for Alonso’s breakdown was followed by Charles Leclerc’s off in the Alfa Romeo Sauber at Turn 11 which required repairs to the protective barriers.

Esteban Ocon had a low-key morning for Force India with just over 60 laps ahead of both Sergey Sirtokin in the Williams and Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull who both focused on set-up and mileage.