Sebastian Vettel lost the final two-and-a-half hours of Formula 1 pre-season track time after his Ferrari suffered an electrical problem which forced th🙈e team𒈔 to end its programme early.

The German driver leaves Circuit de Catalunya with the fastest test lap time of 1m 16.221s, edging out 😼Lewis Hamilton in🌄 the Mercedes by just 0.003s, but completed exactly 100 laps fewer than the reigning F1 world champion as a number of mechanical faults hampered Ferrari’s progress in the second test.

After a whඣeel rim failure saw Vettel suffer a heavy crash during the morning of day two, the German driver lost his final two-and-a-half hours of track action on day four of the second test with an electrical issue which saw him stop on track at Turn 2 and trigger a red flag.

While Ferrari remain content with its lap count, team principal and managing director Mattia Binotto concedes the SF90 remains a work in progress for the Italian manufacturer following a series of mechan🍬ical stops.

“These past days have been very intensive a♋nd interesting. We are still focusing on our car to understand its limits in terms of performance and reliability,” Binotto said.

“Overall, I 𝓀am pleased with the work we have carried out. I am pleased with how the car behaves and it was well balanced a💛t this track.

“However, we cannot be completely satisfied at the moment as we wou♛ld like to be fa🥃ster and more reliable. So there’s still a lot to do.

“Our programme didn’t a🍃lways run as smoothly as we would have liked, due to reliability issues and Sebastian’s crash when a wheel rim broke. There are still many issues to be addressed and we must push forwa🍰rd on the performance front.

“The fact that our car is running properly is a good starting point, but 🍌we are still not ready for Melbourne and I'd say it’s a case of a work in progress.”

Ferrari and the rest of the F1 gird has just under two weeks to digest pre-season testing ahead 🍷of the 2019 season opener at Albert 🌜Park for the Australian Grand Prix on March 15-17.