Pirelli conducts wet weather F1 test in final afternoon

The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was artificially soaked by water tankers during the lunch break to give teams the chance to test out Pirelli’s new 18-inch wet weather compounds for the first time. 

Teams have been given the chance to trial both the intermediate and wet tyres during the afternoon and will be free to choose their run plans.

Drivers will be able to switch back to slicks to round out the final day of the first test in Spain once track conditions have dried out. 

George Russell currently sits at the top of the timing sheets, having produced the fastest time of testing so far on Friday morning. 

Running in the morning was truncated by five red flag periods, two of which were triggered by stoppages for Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. Both cars suffered hydraulic-related problems that caused a small fire. 

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is back in action for Mercedes on Friday afternoon.

A further three-day test will take place in Bahrain between March 10-12, before the season-opening race at Sakhir on March 20.