Barcelona Test No. 2: Day 3 Recap

Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen knocked down an impressive 153 laps Thursday in his final preseason testing drive of the Haas VF-18 at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya. It was the highest single-day lap tally for the American squad so far this season, with Magnussen besting is own 96-lap mark set during each of his previous two test days at the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn track.

Teammate Romain Grosjean takes over the Haas VF-18 for the final day of testing Friday, but on the penultimate day of on-track running, Magnussen brought his testing total to 381 laps or 1,773.55 kilometers (1,102.033 miles).

Magnussen’s best lap of the day was his best lap of the entire two-week test – a 1:18.360 on his 61st lap while utilizing the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tire. The time placed Magnussen second among the 13 drivers participating in Thursday’s session.

Haas F1 Team’s morning run plan started with three installation laps on the White medium tire before three timed stints on the Yellow soft compound where Magnussen logged 30 laps. A change to the supersofts brought increased performance over four runs for 31 laps. Magnussen switched to the Purple ultrasoft tire for two, six-lap runs prior to the mandatory lunch break.

The afternoon session began with a 66-lap race simulation. Magnussen started on used supersofts for 18 laps, ran a 33-lap stint on fresh mediums, and then donned a new set of softs for the final 15 laps. The day culminated with an 11-lap stint on ultrasofts.

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel set the day’s quickest time (1:17.182) and ran the most laps (188).

​“We had a good day and, overall, I’m pleased with what we’ve done this winter test. My time in the car has been valuable and I think we’ve learned a lot. I’m hoping the team will have another good day tomorrow, then I think we’ll be in decent shape to start the season. I feel like we’ve ticked the boxes you need to before going racing. We achieved what we had set out to in the program. Now I’m ready to go racing.”

“Our most productive day of preseason testing today. We did more than 150 laps and we learned quite a lot about the car. We have one more day to go tomorrow with Romain. We’ll be working hard to have a day like today.”

Grosjean returns to the Haas VF-18 on Friday to complete the second and final week of testing.