Charles Leclerc Leads the Way for Ferrari on Day Two of Barcelona Test

Charles Leclerc ended day two of the first pre-season test with the quickest time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as two red flags affected the days running.

Firstly, a gearbox issue for Sergio Pérez left the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver stranded on circuit, while a fuel pump issue for Nikita Mazepin did likewise for the Uralkali Haas F1 Team driver.  However, despite their stoppages, both did not lose too much time and were able to resume running not long after.

Daniel Ricciardo had set the pace for the McLaren F1 Team in the morning session, but the Australian was usurped, not only by Scuderia Ferrari’s Leclerc in the afternoon but also by Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly.

Leclerc’s best time of 1:19.689 was just over two-tenths better than Gasly’s best, while Ricciardo was six-tenths back in third.  For both Gasly and Ricciardo, it was their first tastes of their respective 2022 machines after watching Yuki Tsunoda and Lando Norris run on day one.  And both drivers were busy as they both exceeded the one-hundred lap barrier.

Having taken over from Lewis Hamilton for the afternoon session, George Russell ended the day fourth fastest for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team, just ahead of the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz Jr. who had run in the morning session before handing over to Leclerc.

Sebastian Vettel placed sixth for the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team, with team-mate Lance Stroll twelfth.  Between them, they completed one hundred and twenty-eight laps, with the German completing seventy-three of them.

After his earlier troubles, Pérez was able to complete seventy-eight laps in the RB18 and ended seventh fastest, while Mazepin was an encouraging eighth for Haas.  His team-mate Mick Schumacher was thirteenth, but the team put one hundred and seven laps on the board across the day.

Alexander Albon and Nicholas Latifi were ninth and eleventh respectively for Williams Racing, completing one hundred and eight laps between them, while Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s rookie driver Guanyu Zhou finally got his first track action in during the afternoon session and placed tenth.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon was the first driver on the day to break through the one hundred lap barrier, the Frenchman ending with one hundred and twenty-five laps to his name, while Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was at the other end of the spectrum, running only twenty-one laps as the team suffered more reliability concerns.

Only forty laps were completed by Hamilton in the morning session, with the seven-time World Champion ending the day slowest of the sixteen drivers that took to the track on Thursday.

The test concludes on Friday.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya Pre-Season Test Day 2 Times