Russell sets F1 testing pace as five red flags disrupt final morning

Russell produced the new benchmark time of the opening pre-season test - a 1m19.233s - on Pirelli’s C5 tyre amid a flurry of hot laps completed during the final hour of a disrupted penultimate session on Friday morning. 

Five red flags punctuated a stop-start morning session, with the first caused by a stoppage for Fernando Alonso early in the morning. 

Fire damage from the problem that caused Alonso to stop on track has forced Alpine to end its day - and test - prematurely. 

A crash for Pierre Gasly at Turn 5 brought out the second red flag, before Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou caused two red flags in a row with a spin at Turn 10 and stoppage in the first sector just moments after the track had returned to green. 

A fifth and final red flag ended the morning session early after Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin ground to a halt with a fire. 

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen ended up five-tenths behind Russell but the Red Bull driver’s best time was set on the C4 compound, while Vettel had gone third-quickest after a C5 run prior to his stoppage. 

A fraction behind Vettel came Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fourth, with Nicholas Latifi rounding out the top five for Williams. 

McLaren’s Lando Norris was sixth, ahead of Alonso - who only completed 12 laps before encountering his test-ending issue - Zhou, Gasly and Alex Albon, who split driving duties with Latifi in the morning. 

Haas driver Nikita Mazepin propped up the morning order after managing just nine laps before a leakage left him garage-bound for the rest of the session. 

As well as topping the timing sheets, Russell also logged the most laps of the morning, clocking up 66 in total. 

The Barcelona circuit will be artificially wetted so that Pirelli can conduct some wet tyre running to close out the opening pre-season test in Spain. 

Full results from the morning session.