Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had the fastest time while McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo finished third. Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly placed second.
BARCELONA, Spain—After just missing out on the best time in Wednesday’s opening test session at the Circuit de Catalunya, Charles Leclerc made it clear that Day 1 performance was no fluke. On Thursday, he took the fastest time of 1:19:698, just shy of McLaren’s Lando Norris’s best time on Wednesday.
Leclerc’s time was set with an appreciably heavy fuel load, showing that Ferrari made off-season improvements in its car’s performance. Combined with his teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr., who had the fifth-best time of the day, the Scuderia pilots completed 149 total laps.
The Spaniard noted the accomplishment, but he didn’t get carried away with his results. “We’ve managed to complete one day and a half of testing without pretty much any single issue, which is an encouraging start for us,” Saintz said afterward. “(But) it’s not very exciting because we are nowhere near to the limit of the car or finding out where the performances are.”
As for the rest of the field, Tauri’s Pierre Gasly was second-best on the day with 147 laps done. Daniel Ricciardo was third-best in his McLaren, proving that the Norris-Ricciardo team is primed to compete. At Mercedes, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton split their morning and afternoon run, with Hamilton finishing 16th and last, while Russell ended up fourth.
Afterward, Russell commented on Ferrari and McLaren. “They seem to have things well under control. They are on top of everything and look very strong in low and high fuel and in tire management. The championship’s not won in Barcelona pre-season testing, but it’s certainly been an intriguing two days.”
Sebastian Vettel continued to place near the top with a sixth-place finish, and he grabbed another headline. In a post-test comment on the Ukrainian situation, Vettel said that he would not race in Russia in September because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The invasion also affected another team, Haas specifically. Nikita Mazepin, who is Russian, will drive on Day 3 testing Friday, but the markings and symbol of his country’s flag will be removed from the car.
On the track Thursday, both Haas drivers improved their Wednesday’s performance. Mazepin took eighth fastest even though he stopped on the track for the second red flag with a fuel pump issue. Teammate Mick Schumacher finished 13th.
At Red Bull, Sergio Perez took over for Max Verstappen, who had driven on Wednesday, and it was not a fun day for Perez. His seventh place was highlighted by a 20-minute red flag just before lunch when the Mexican’s car stopped on track. Perez could only continue in the afternoon for a total of 78 laps.
For the rest of the testers, Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi were 9th and 11th, Alfa Romeo’s Chinese rookie Guanya Zhou was tenth. His new companion, Valtteri Bottas, came in 15th. Lance Stroll took 12th in the second Aston Martin, while Esteban Ocon, in his first day of testing, ended up 14th in the Alpine.
Testing at the Spanish venue will end on Friday. Then, teams will travel to Bahrain for more testing on March 10-12. The season opens there on March 20.
