The team notes that a minor sealing problem in the hydraulic system caused the flames at the rear of the car.
The Asturian driver could only complete 12 laps in the last test day, dominated by Hamilton
‘The plan’ it has twisted Fernando Alonso could only complete 12 laps of the track Montmelo this Friday, at third and final day of pre-season testingbefore his single-seater A522 stopped at turn 13 of the Circuit de Barcelona, in the middle of a thick smoke. Alpine later revealed the causes of this technical failure, which prevented them from shooting the rest of the day. They say goodbye to the Barcelona rehearsal and will return to the track in the next test session, in Bahrain, from March 11 to 13.
“After further investigation in the garage following Fernando Alonso’s track stop this morning, the team can confirm that the problem was a hydraulic system problem. A minor sealing issue caused a fire in the back of the car“, Alpine explained in a statement provided at noon, confirming that neither Stephen Ocon I was going to be able to shoot as planned in the afternoon.
“The team has successfully completed 266 laps during the three days of the ‘shakedown’ in Barcelona. Repairs to the car will continue and as a result we will not be running for the rest of the day. We hope to be back in action at the next test in Bahrain.”
Mercedes goes big
Lewis Hamilton It seemed that he was not in the tests, but he closed them with the best time of the three days. Off the track, the image of him snooping around the car Max Verstappen in front of the Red Bull box was the most commented on Wednesday, on the first day. But the seven-time champion, who on Thursday closed his turn at the wheel of the new Mercedes W13 in tenth position, said goodbye in a big way this Friday: first he set a time of 1.19.141 with which has overtaken his new partner George Russell and then he put on the supersoft Pirelli tire (C5) to lower his time to 1.19.139. Few believed the rumors about his retirement, but just in case this Friday Hamilton has made it clear that he has never left.
Russell, making the most of his first days aboard the Mercedes, had led the morning session, marked by incidents, with a total of five red flags. After the lunch break, Pirelli artificially wet the asphalt de Montmeló to test their new wet tires. The track gradually dried up and from 4pm, with two hours to go, Hamilton began to drop his times to get closer to Russell’s time and end up improving on it.
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Ferrari, close to the best
Following the Mercedes were the two Red Bulls from Sergio Perez and the champion Verstappen, half a second ahead of Vettel and the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The Scuderia has confirmed the progress of its new F1-75, fast and reliable, while Mercedes has not suffered any major setbacks in these tests either.