Barcelona Test No.2: Day 3 Recap
February 28, 2019
Date: Thursday, February 28
Location: Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, Spain
Layout: 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn circuit
Driver: Kevin Magnussen (Morning) / Romain Grosjean (Afternoon)
Laps Completed: Magnussen – 53 laps / Grosjean – 16 laps
Distance Completed: Magnussen – 246.715 kilometers (153.276 miles)
Distance Completed: Grosjean – 74.48 kilometers (46.272 miles)
Best Lap Time: Magnussen – 1:18.199 (12th overall) / Grosjean – 1:17.854 (9th overall)
Fastest Lap: 1:16.231 by Charles Leclerc of Scuderia Ferrari
Most Laps: 140 laps by George Russell of Williams Racing
Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean both saw time behind the wheel of the Haas VF-19 Thursday at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya, but technical issues were to hamper the team’s hopes for sustained mileage on the penultimate day of testing.
Magnussen returned having set the team’s highest single-day lap tally (131) to start the second week of testing on Tuesday. His half-day program Thursday was curtailed late-morning due to a programming issue with the brake-by-wire system. By that stage Magnussen had recorded 53 laps around the 4.655-kilometer (2.892-mile), 16-turn circuit. His fastest time of 1:18.199, shod on the C3 Pirelli compound, placed him 12th overall on the day.
Track time in the afternoon was ceded to an exhaust issue discovered on the VF-19 during the lunch break. A shortened run plan followed with Grosjean making his track debut just 45 minutes prior to the checkered flag. He set a best lap of 1:17.854 on C3 tires, good for ninth from the 13 drivers participating.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the day’s quickest time (1:16.231) while George Russell ran the most laps for Williams Racing (140).
Grosjean and Magnussen will again share driving duties in the VF-19 on Friday as the second and final week of preseason testing draws to a close.
Kevin Magnussen:
“We carried on with the program today and did what we needed to do. I was happy to get more laps in obviously. I’m still feeling good in the car and look forward to tomorrow’s final afternoon of track time. The team’s busy preparing for our last day testing, but we’re all really looking forward to going racing now.”
Romain Grosjean:
“We had an issue that was discovered at lunch and it took a long time to fix. It wasn’t the afternoon I was after. I’m now just focused on tomorrow morning and getting my last taste of the car before we head to Melbourne. Generally, we’ve made some great progress in testing. The car’s showing us the limits, and where we can work, the baseline is very good. We’re happy with that baseline and the car’s performance. We haven’t focused too much on lap times at the moment. Melbourne will come and eventually we’ll put everything together for qualifying. Right now, we’re learning the VF-19, discovering a bit more, and it’s getting better and better. The feeling is good, as it was last year.”
Guenther Steiner:
“It’s been a little disappointing today, we didn’t do enough running. The morning was okay, we almost completed our planned program, but not so much the afternoon, where obviously we got very little done. Hopefully we’re getting all our little gremlins over with here in testing, so we don’t bring them to the races. That said, the last two days were good, so if we have a good day tomorrow, I think we’ll be fine.”
ENDS