Sebastian Vettel broke the unofficial track record at the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona on the penultimate day of Formula One pre-season testing.
In his best lap out of the 84 he completed, the German Ferrari driver recorded a time of one minute, 17.182 seconds on the new hypersoft tyres, and more than a second quicker than anyone else in a dry session with few problems.
The time eclipsed the previous best, since the Barcelona circuit was reconfigured in 2007, of 1:18.47 set on Wednesday by Red Bull’s Australian star Daniel Ricciardo.
Times in testing are not recognised as records, however.
Kevin Magnussen in the Ferrari-powered Haas and on supersoft tyres, was more than a second back in 1:18.360, while Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly was third fastest in 1:18.363.
World champion Lewis Hamilton timed 1:19.296 as eighth fastest using super-soft tyres on his Mercedes, sharing the day’s driving duties with team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
McLaren put two days of troubled running behind them with a solid 151 laps for Belgian Stoffel Vandoorne, who was sixth on the timesheets.
Vandoorne completed 151 laps with the new Renault-powered car and had the sixth fastest time after the team suffered technical problems on the first two days of testing.
The first race of the new season is the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 25.