Vettel ends pre-season with a record, Mercedes & Red Bull curiously quiet

The unofficial lap record at the Circuit de Catalunya had stood for 10 years before Daniel Ricciardo lowered it on Wednesday. Just 24 hours later, Sebastian Vettel had chopped another nine tenths second off it, the Ferrari star signing off for pre-season in style.

Kimi Raikkonen will be behind the wheel for the Scuderia on the final day of the second test in Barcelona, so Vettel filled his boots on Thursday, clocking one minute 17.182 seconds in a blistering batch of qualifying simulations.

The German, ended the day having piled on 188 laps as he took to race-distance runs in the afternoon.

Much of the talk around F1 this week has focused on a tantalising three-way battle for supremacy in 2018, but Vettel was all alone at the top of the timesheets, with Kevin Magnussen and Pierre Gasly leaving Haas and Toro Rosso in the unfamiliarly lofty heights of second and third.

Red Bull's one-lap performance had stolen the headlines on Wednesday, but Max Verstappen ended the day 12th of a 13-strong field, although the Dutchman came within one of Vettel's whopping lap count.

Indeed, long runs were the order of the day as no fewer than seven drivers racked up double figures, while Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton put 181 laps into the Mercedes across the day.

The Silver Arrows in particularly seem to be holding their cards close to their chest in terms of their absolute top-level pace, while Toto Wolff has been quick to highlight the gains he expects Red Bull and Ferrari to make this year.