The red flags were raised on Friday to allow for track repairs after Sergio Perez ran over a drain cover during the opening hour of competition. After the practice resumed, it continued without a lunch break until the end of the day, during which Verstappen took over at the wheel of the RB20.

Verstappen finished fourth on the timesheets but was nevertheless happy with his performance after completing 66 laps in the three days of testing, while Charles Leclerc emerged first with a lap time of 1m 30.322s.

After the test was over, Verstappen said, “Today we made the plan to not focus on pure lap time.” “I believe it was more crucial to finish the lengthy process and then gain a better understanding of the vehicle, so we concentrated on that programme, and to be honest, I believe everything turned out rather well.

“[I’m] pretty satisfied with the car and how it was performing, and then it will be about fine-tuning the balance around the conditions that you encounter during the race weekend.”