Mercedes leads testing

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes led the fourth day of Formula One tests on Thursday, when teams made up for lost time caused by bad weather. It was a busy day at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona at Montmelo, Spain, after snowfall and cold temperatures kept most cars in the garage on Wednesday. Temperatures improved Thursday for the final session of the week, and teams immediately sent out their cars. Hamilton posted a lap of 1 minute, 19.333 seconds, the best of the week. The British driver was a half-second faster than Stoffel

Vandoorne of McLaren, who had his time on the faster hypersoft tires. Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, last year’s runner-up in the drivers’ championship, was third-fastest, nearly a second behind Hamilton.

Pierre Gasly’s Honda-powered Toro Rosso led the lap charts with 147. Vettel was next with 120 laps, followed by Vandoorne’s 110. Hamilton ended the day with 69. The session was stopped briefly in the morning after Marcus Ericsson went off the track in his Sauber. There was another red flag in the afternoon when

Max Verstappen went off in a Red Bull. Drivers still needed wet tires early in the session but conditions improved significantly in the afternoon and drivers were able to finish on dry tires. Unusually cold weather significantly reduced practice time

for the teams this week as the track remained without enough grip for proper runs. There will be another four-day test session in Barcelona starting Tuesday. The season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is March 25.