OMNISPORT

Daniil Kvyat left it late before setting the fastest time on day three of Formula One testing in Barcelona.

Kvyat is back in F1 after being dropped by Toro Rosso in 2017 and serving as a development driver with Ferrari last season. The 24-year-old has been handed another chance by Toro Rosso and he impressed on Wednesday, racking up 137 laps and the quickest time of the 13 drivers on show.

Kimi Raikkonen had looked on course to finish the day top of the standings after finding plenty of pace on the soft compound, his Alfa Romeo going round in one minute 17.762 seconds.

Kvyat took five hundredths out of that time in the final throes of day three, while Daniel Ricciardo ensured the Ferraris were pushed out of the top three.

Once again the Mercedes were well off the pace set by their rivals, with world champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas unable to go sub-one minute and 20 seconds.

Meanwhile, Williams were finally able to start collecting data after a delay to their arrival that deputy team principal Claire Williams described as "embarrassing".

RAPID RAIKKONEN 

Alfa Romeo's solid start to the 2019 season continued with Raikkonen back behind the wheel, the 2007 champion having returned to the team he raced for at the start of his career.

His C38 has a front wing different from the majority on the grid and it seems to be having an impact, Raikkonen sitting top of the timesheets for much of the day.

WILLIAMS FINALLY MAKE THEIR BOW

After missing the opening two days of testing, Williams were finally able to show off their FW42, with rookie George Russell given the honour of taking to the track first.

"I'm not going to go into any detail [about the delay]," Claire Williams told reporters. "It's not a situation that we anticipated, or that we ever wanted to find ourselves in.

"We're not just disappointed. It's embarrassing not bringing a race car to a circuit when everyone else managed to do that, particularly a team like ours that has managed to bring a race car to testing for the past 40-odd years."

HAAS' UNWANTED HAT-TRICK

It was another tough day for Haas as they struggled with reliability, their VF-19 stopping three times on the track to hamper Romain Grosjean and Pietro Fittipaldi.

An ignition-coil related issue was given as the reason for Haas' first two breakdowns, with the final stoppage of the day seeing marshals put out flames at the rear of the car.