Ferrari have another F1 test, as McLaren is going faster on the sixth day

Sainz was using Pirelli's second, softer tire compound – known as the C4 – which suggests that McLaren is still coming much closer to the softer rubber. It left Sainz comfortably faster in 0.698s of Racing Point's Sergio Perez while the best teams continued to mask their true pace on the softer tires.

Ferrari's track time was severely limited by a morning high-speed accident involving Sebastian Vettel. The three-time world champion pulled away from the uninjured crash, but the car was destroyed and completed only one lap in the afternoon. The team suspects that the failure of the front suspension was the culprit, as Vettel entered high-speed curve 3.

The issue was Ferrari's second problem in a few days after checks on the cooling system cost Vettel's team mate Charles Leclerc on track. Despite completing more than nine races in the first week of testing, Vettel said the missed laps are still a concern.

"Well, we covered a lot of mileage last week, but certainly the plan is to always deliver on its program," he said. "We had more laps on the scoreboard than 40 this morning, so it's certainly not ideal as we're wasting time."

"But now it's important to understand what happened." I hit the wall hard and I think Tecpro and the wall did their job and the car did the work, but of course after the impact the car was badly damaged. which also makes it very difficult to reconstruct what was happening shortly before the impact. "

The car was rebuilt in time for Leclerc to complete only one installation lap before the checkered flag.

Another three red flags stopped working during the day, with the loss of water pressure causing Sainz's car to stop at the track in the morning, Max Verstappen stopping at the pit lane exit and Kimi Raikkonen's Alfa Romeo stopping on the track in the final minute of the session.

After a problem in the power unit kept Mercedes in the garage for most of Tuesday afternoon, the world champions made up for lost time on Wednesday with a total of 176 laps between the two drivers. Lewis Hamilton completed the lion's share with 104 laps in the afternoon to add to Valtteri Bottas 72 in the morning.