Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Racing Bulls and Cadillac also ran on Thursday.
Lewis Hamilton had a spin in the Ferrari out of Turn 10, but he and team-mate Charles Leclerc managed 170 laps between them.
Seven-time champion Hamilton said: “Nice to get out in the dry. It was great to be able to understand the tyres… [and get] a bit of an understanding as to where the car is at.
“I did 85 laps in the morning, which is amazing. Last year we had a worse start to testing so considering this is a new set of rules it is better than in the past.
“Still continuing to get as much mileage and knowledge on this engine and the car on the aero side.”
At McLaren, Oscar Piastri managed 48 laps before his day was curtailed by a fuel-system problem.
Technical director performance Mark Temple said: “The car is very complex so we decided to bring it back and strip it down to understand where it was coming from.”
Mercedes again impressed, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli setting the two fastest times and completing 168 laps between them on what was their last day of testing.
Teams are only allowed to run on three of the five days and Mercedes have reached their allocation.
Russell said: “A very positive test and we had a lot of mileage on the car, which was the main focus of the test.
“The car is feeling nice to drive, no major issues, no porpoising – which is pretty good news for all of us, it will save us a few years on the back. All in all a decent few days.”
Russell’s reference to porpoising concerns an aerodynamic phenomenon that blighted the cars from 2022-25. When airflow under the car is disrupted a high-speed bouncing can be set in motion.
The new cars have a different design philosophy so will not be affected by it.
“The car has been working well, but it is not about how well it works, it is about how quick it goes around the track and we don’t really have an indication of that at the moment,” he added.
“We are in a reasonably good place and I am sure things are going to change between now and the Bahrain test and I’m sure people are going to be bringing upgrades to the car.”
Red Bull are hoping to be back out on Friday. They were unable to run on Thursday because they were waiting for spare parts.
Lap times cannot be considered representative of performance at what has been dubbed a “shakedown” test, as teams do not reveal what programmes they are running and fuel load, engine modes and tyre compounds all make major differences to lap times.
There are two further pre-season tests, in Bahrain on 11-13 and 18-20 February, before the opening grand prix in Australia on 6-8 March.
















