Russell produced a 1m16.641 seconds to lower the bar in terms of the test\u2019s quickest overall time, hours after teammate Kimi Antonelli <\/a>had posted a 1m17.081s which also usurped Wednesday\u2019s headline time.<\/p>\n It was another smooth day for the impressive Mercedes, who racked up another mighty haul of 168 laps on Thursday to keep the Silver Arrows on top of the overall mileage chart as they bow out of the Barcelona shakedown, having completed their third and final permitted day of running.<\/p>\n Sitting in third place was Charles Leclerc<\/a> who clocked a 1m19.128s, having taken over from teammate Lewis Hamilton<\/a> in the afternoon.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Seven-time world champion Hamilton recovered from what social media footage showed to be a fairly innocuous spin early doors to complete 85 laps as he and Leclerc chalked up 170 for Ferrari<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aston Martin finally debuts, McLaren hit trouble<\/p>\n Thursday marked the first appearance of Aston Martin\u2019s highly-anticipated 2026 F1 challenger<\/a> following the Silverstone squad\u2019s late arrival to the first pre-season test.<\/p>\n Adrian Newey\u2019s first Aston Martin F1 car, the AMR26, finally appeared on track with just one hour of the afternoon session remaining, having been flown into Spain and worked on late into Wednesday night and throughout Thursday.<\/p>\n Sporting an all-black livery, the AMR26 completed a handful of laps with Lance Stroll<\/a> at the wheel before stopping on track in the closing minutes to\u00a0 cause a red flag and bring the penultimate day to a dramatic end.<\/p>\n Before his Aston broke down, Stroll set a single timed lap which was a slow one at 1m46.404s, leaving him bottom of the leaderboard for what its worth.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n It wasn’t a smooth day for McLaren<\/p>\n After making a solid start to their pre-season programme on Wednesday, McLaren<\/a>\u2019s running on Thursday was interrupted by a fuel systems issue which cut short Oscar Piastri<\/a>\u2019s first day in the MCL40.<\/p>\n “It was nice to be back out, especially in a new car. A lot of new challenges for us this year up and down the grid, so it\u2019s nice to get stuck into some of them,\u201d the Australian said.<\/p>\n “Unfortunately, a few issues today. We had a fuel systems issue which cut our day a bit short, but I know the team is working really hard to get that fixed and get us back out for as many laps as we can tomorrow.”<\/p>\n Red Bull sat out Thursday\u2019s action <\/a>as the team await spare parts as a consequence of Isack Hadjar\u2019s heavy crash <\/a>on Tuesday. The Milton Keynes squad expect to resume their test programme on Friday.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Haas also chose not to participate on the penultimate day after encountering two mechanical problems on Wednesday, while Alpine and Audi opted to save their final day of running for Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769758630_242_5.jpg\")
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