Barcelona Test 2026 day-3 morning: Mercedes is scary, 92 laps and best time for Russell

McLaren’s premiere The morning session on day 3 in Barcelona did not fail to provide several interesting insights, thanks also to more clement weather which allowed the teams who chose to run today – Mercedes, McLaren, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Haas and Audi – to work with relative serenity. The Mercedes-powered teams took the spotlight, all protagonists albeit for different reasons: McLaren finally took its new car out on track, the MCL40, with world champion Lando Norris at the wheel. For the Englishman it was the first public appearance with the number 1 on the nose: a moment to remember. Impressive Mercedes However, the greatest impression was made by Mercedes’ W17: in fact, in the morning alone, George Russell lapped repeatedly, almost without interruption, completing 92 laps. In the afternoon the car will pass to his teammate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but the impression is that, at least from a reliability point of view, the silver arrows have already reached a very high level compared to the competition. The problem, for the others, is that Brackley’s car is also the fastest for the moment. In fact, Russell stopped the clock at a time of 1’17″580. This is the best time of the entire shakedown test so far. Finally, Alpine also stood out positively: Franco Colapinto recorded a time of 1’19″150, the second fastest of the morning. The disappointed ones Among the disappointments, however, can only be included Audi and Haas: both teams had to deal with technical problems on their single-seaters, thus significantly limiting the time spent on the track. Audi in particular, with Nico Hulkenberg, was able to complete just five laps before having to raise the white flag due to the second technical problem in two days, after those suffered by Gabriel Bortoleto on Monday. Bearman however, after the stop at the start of the session, managed to get back on track just before the lunch break. Barcelona test day-3 morning: the results DriverCarTimeLapsGeorge RussellMercedes1’17″58092Franco ColapintoAlpine+1″57056Lando NorrisMcLaren+1″99233Arvid LindbladRacing Bulls+3″13461Ollie BearmanHaas+3″26021Nico HulkenbergAudis.t.5