Leclerc keeps Ferrari on top after freak F1 testing red flag

Charles Leclerc ended his pre-season testing fastest for Ferrari in the Day 3 morning session, impacted by a freak red flag.

Leclerc's time of a 1:30.811 was set during the first two hours of running, shading Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli by just 0.077s as the field gravitated towards race-pace simulations in the second half of the morning.

Only Lando Norris, who had a quiet first-half of the morning due to various constant speed runs in the McLaren, vaulted up the order, eventually posting a time 0.132s slower than Leclerc to slot into third place.

In the final hour of running, the red flags were flown for the second time in the test for a freak incident on the pit-straight involving the race starter control box. 

A pane of glass was either dislodged or exploded, leaving the shattered glass on the inside of the track by the pit-wall, with marshals deployed to sweep up the remnants of the unlucky pane.

Running quickly resumed thereafter, with Antonelli and Fernando Alonso back out, but a second flag was immediately thrown for a quad-bike on track. 

World champion Max Verstappen, back in the Red Bull for the first time since Wednesday afternoon finished fourth, ahead of Jack Doohan, Alex Albon, Isack Hadjar, Fernando Alonso, Gabriel Bortoleto and Ollie Bearman. 

Bearman had the only other major incident of note in the day after the engine cover on his Haas failed early on, requiring a slow trip back to the pits for repairs.

Whilst he did not crash, Norris also came close on a number of occassions, with snaps of oversteer and traces of understeer present as he wrestled the balance of the MCL39, which included a particularly close shave after a snap at Turn 4.

Bortoleto lost a lot of time after his car was placed on the stands in the garage, and completed the fewest number of laps on 36 with Hadjar clocking up the most with 74 tours. 

For every driver aside from Verstappen and Albon, this marked the end of their pre-season testing, with the Red Bull and Williams drivers in for the full day of running. 

The likes of Lewis Hamilton, George Russell and Oscar Piastri will be driving for their teams in the afternoon, with Lance Stroll also fit to resume driving duties after feeling ill overnight, prompting Alonso to take the morning session for the third time in the week.