Despite the very best efforts of the weather led Storm Emma’s Spanish cous🐼in, day four of Formula 1 pre-season testing ⛎in Barcelona went by without any real hitch.

After a damp morning foll⛎owing overnight drizzle and the snow that scuppered Wednesday’s plans melting away, teams were able to make the switch to slicks ju💮st before lunch, giving them the chance to make up for much of the lost running through a frustrating test so far.

Thursday offered the best weather conditions of the week as the track tempera✃ture rocketed to a balmy 25ºC at points, with the air temperature hanging around 13ºC. At last, the teams were finally able to finish their final checks and get out on-track for some meaningful r🐻unning to cap off the first test.

As is always the case in testing - and particularly this early on - the times need to be taken with a pinch of salt. Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton turn♕ed heads with his fastest time of the day - and the test so far - as he recorded a lap of 1:19.333, finishing half a second clear of the field for Merc෴edes.

Hamilton’s time was just two-tenths of a second shy of his pole lap in Barcelona last year, seemingly made even more impressive by the fact he managed it on the medium compound tyr🧸e. Do bear in mind the fact that each compound has taken a step softer this year, making this season’s medium like a 2017 soft, plus the track resurfacing that has made the track much faster. The season isn’t already over yet folks…

So even if we are looking at things through ܫsnow-tinted goggles, who do we provisionally name as our winners and losers following the first test in Barcelona?

Mercedes has once again looked i𒅌n excellent shape through testing so far. The only blot on its record book appeared to be with Hamilton, who after💜 sitting out Tuesday to give teammate Valtteri Bottas more track time had completed a grand total of just 25 laps heading into Thursday’s session. Even after not being out in the morning, Hamilton ended the day with 69 laps to his name and as the fastest driver. Not bad given the naysayers’ belief his title defence was already in jeopardy following a spot of snow…

Ferrari has also enjoyed a solid opening test in Barcelona. With the exception of Sebastian Vettel’s off-track moment on Tuesday, the team has not endured any major is𒀰sues, racking up a decent🧸 amount of mileage, even if the four-time world champion wasn’t getting too carried away with things.

“It's been a🐻 difficult week with cool temperatur𝓀es, but I think it affected everybody,” Vettel said. “We got limited answers. Still a lot of questions that we carry into next week.

“It's alꦫways difficult to judge in the conditions, but I think we understand what's happening with the car. I think we can still understand more and understand better what's going on with more running. But for that we need to r𓄧un…”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:As noted in our day one analysis, Toro Rosso and Honda have made an excellent start to life together, enjoying a trouble-free first test. For♊ all of the doom and gloom there may have been about this new partnership, to have experienced such smooth running - even if the engines are in a conservative mode - bod🐠es well. There’s a good atmosphere building at the team.

The loss of running wa𝔉s especially costly to Toro Rosso drivers Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly, who combine as one of the least experienced driver line-ups in F1 history heading into the new season. With a combined nine grands prix under their belt, ever lap in the new car is crucial.

“They are two really good guys to work with and they want to get on with it,” Toro Rosso technical chief James Keꦺy said. “They want to spend some time not haviไng to worry about a race weekend and just get on with improving themselves and the car together with us and so on.

“We’ve obviously missed a lot of that which is really unfortunate, so hopef🐼ully next week we can address a bit of it. But that [loss of running] is the biggest regret from this week I’d say.”

Yet Toro Rosso still ended the test as the leading team in terms of mileage. The final day saw Gasly rack up a mammoth 147 laps (the most for Honda in a single pre-season day since returning to F1 in 2015) and finish the test as the most travelled driver. Toro Rosso completed 324 laps across four days, even with Wednesday’s washout,🌃 putting it 18 ahead of Mercedes in second - 𓆉and 64 clear of McLaren.

At the other end of the spectrum is parent team, Red Bull. Daniel Ricciardo made a solid start on day one, ✃finishing P1 both on the timesheets and in terms of mileage, but things took a hit from there, particularly on Max Verstappen’s days. A fuel leak on Tuesday limited the Dutchman to 67 laps before further trouble hit on Thursday, culminating in a spin off the track in the closing hours that bro🤡ught the team’s day to an early end.

Reliability has not been the team’s 🐷strong suit thus far. Red Bull ended the test having completed 209 laps, putting it third from bottom on the mileage count, ahead only of Haas and Force India. Haas had its own problems early in the test, with a DRS issue costing it a lot of time on Wednesday, while Force India has had a tough start to life with the VJM11. The car did not run before testing, and managed just 166 laps in total over four days. Sergio Perez d🐲idn’t even drive the car until Thursday. Both teams have a lot of work to do next week.

The other team under pressure in terms of reliability was McLaren, following the split with Honda and shift to Renault. The excite🍷ment around🦹 Fernando Alonso’s early wheel nut issue and spin on Monday soon faded as the team began to lay down some decent mileage, finishing with the most laps of any team for the day. Stoffel Vandoorne wound up second overall on the timesheets, putting in his best time on the hyper soft tyre before handing over to Fernando Alonso for the remainder of the day.

All in all, McLaren may have wanted more from the first test. 260 laps is a decent figure given the🍨 woes of last year, and Thursday was strong. But the team is still only sixth in the final mileage figures, 13 adrift of Renault - and has a figure bo🐲osted by Alonso’s glory runs in the wet on Wednesday.

We may have the early signs of which teams are looking stronger than others so far this year, but next week should see more answers reveal themselves - relying the rain stays awa🐽y…