The third day of testing has started with no track activity at all during the entire morning. A heavy snowfall began to fall on the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit at dawn and has covered the facilities. The track was not covered by snow, but it was really damp and wet.
During the morning, the entire paddock was found that the forecasted snow actually reached the circuit. This finally happened and has ruined the teams and drivers’ plans for the morning.
The possibility of cancelling this day and holding it on Friday was realistic, but Williams voted against it since they have a filming day scheduled. The testing day, then, has not been moved or cancelled.
Due to the conditions, the medical helicopter was unable to fly, and the start of the session was delayed, the red flag waved since 9:00. Al least 2 cm of snow had covered runoff areas, grandstands and pelouse zones. It was unique, beautiful scene. There have been lots of pics of the snowy track in social media, posted by teams, drivers, etc.
Finally, the temperature increased a couple of celsius degrees and made the snow become only rain. The snow started to slowly melt and, at 12:00, the green flag finally waved and the cars were allowed to go on track. However, no team wanted to risk and go on track with this heavy rain, wind conditions and cold surface. Temperatures did not go higher than 2º C on air and 4º C on track.
Update: Fernando Alonso has been the only driver to go on track, at 13:20. He has done an installation lap with the full wet tyres compound and has returned to the pits. So far it seems that nobody is going to go on track soon, the conditions are critical.