No breather, the official Formula 1 tests continue! How will Sebastien Vettel, Mick Schumacher and Co. present themselves at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this Thursday?
sport.de reported today since 9:00 o’clock LIVE for you from Catalonia!
+++ Overview after the first hour (ordered by number of laps) +++
Sainz (18 laps): 1:21.010
Ocon (17): 1:24.231
Gasly (16): 1:17.651
Ricciardo (15): 1:22.575
Stroll (11): 1:22,620
Albon (11): 1:48.444
Schumacher (10): 1:24.107
Pérez (4): no time
Hamilton (3): 1:28,799
Bottas (2): no time
+++ Two drivers still without times +++
An hour after the start, most of the drivers have already been able to gather some impressions. Concrete lap times are still missing for Pérez and Bottas, who was only able to get out on the track late.
+++ Signs from Mick Schumacher +++
Mick Schumacher has “only” collected seven laps so far. But: with a 1:24.344 he still moves up to place in the time classification and that on the really hard C2 tires.
Is today better than Wednesday? Yesterday, the Haas team with Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin only collected 42 laps.
“A few things have become a bit more difficult here and there than we had imagined. But that’s part of testing. We still have two days here and three more days in Bahrain,” said the German after the first day of testing.
+++ Driver on the move +++
Wow! It goes straight to the heart of the matter. After Ocon topped the timesheets for a while with a 1:24 time, Stroll and Sainz are now making short work of it. The latter is currently the fastest in his Ferrari at 1:21.010 (on C3). As a reminder, pole position required a 1:16.7 in 2021, and the fastest lap of the race was a 1:18.1 by Max Verstappen.
That Norris came so close on the first day of testing with a 1:19.5 is amazing, as is the fact that the riders are already scratching the 1:20 mark.
+++ Problems with Alfa Romeo +++
Valtteri Bottas’ new team is having problems. Yesterday the racing team was only able to complete 31 laps, today there is apparently a fault in the engine cooling of the new car. Bottas had to get out of the car, the mechanics are busy on the left side of the C42.
With a good half hour delay, the Finn is allowed to go on the track after all. Does everything hold up?
+++ Hamilton an eye-catcher +++
Hardly anyone can outdo Lewis Hamilton in terms of sport and the Brit is always at the forefront when it comes to fashion. After appearing in a trench coat yesterday, today it’s a rapper outfit that the 37-year-old dresses in.
+++ Norris warns against too high expectations +++
Lando Norris set the best time on the first day of the 2022 Formula 1 official tests in Barcelona but says he would have much preferred to finish last than first because he fears outside expectations of the McLaren team could now become unrealistically high . More about this here!
+++ Where is the seven-time world champion? +++
While the first seven cars were already able to gather impressions today, the cars driven by Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Rome) and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) still have to wait. Lewis Hamilton’s W13 was also in the garage until just now. But now the Mercedes driver and seven-time champion is on his way. What’s in it for him today? Yesterday he finished with a 1:20.929 (C3).
Mercedes was more than satisfied with that, as Chief Technology Officer Andre Shovlin explained after the first day of testing: “All in all, the day was surprisingly uncomplicated. If you walk up and down the pit lane, you can see how high the reliability is, and the most teams seemed to be able to complete their programs without any problems.”
+++ First installation rounds completed +++
The first laps have been completed and there are even times. These are not (yet) really representative, but at least Gasly obviously has something up his sleeve. 1:31.790 is his best time so far on the rather soft C4 tires, six laps are already on his account. For comparison: Norris finished yesterday with a 1:19.568, also on C4.
Sainz has already collected five laps, Alex Albon (Williams) three, Ocon two, Stroll four and Mick Schumacher in Haas one so far.
+++ It’s getting full +++
The teams don’t want to waste any time. Even if the three days in Barcelona are officially just called “Shakedown”, in the end they are of course completely normal test days in which you want to set the cars up for the new season in the best possible way.
It is therefore not surprising that Ricciardo is almost immediately followed by Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri). Esteban Ocon also drives into the first installation rounds in the Alpine. As always, the racing cars are equipped with measuring grids at various points to measure air flows and currents.
+++ Daniel Ricciardo opens the dance! +++
The first driver this Thursday morning is Daniel Ricciardo in the new McLaren. The Australian will contest the MCL36 all day. His colleague Lando Norris was not only surprisingly good yesterday, but also very satisfied.
“It’s nice to have a change and it’s been a very productive day,” said Norris. “We learned a lot of things for the team and got all the information we wanted.”
+++ These teams and drivers are starting today +++
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton/George Russell
RedBull: Sergio Perez
McLaren: Daniel Ricciardo
Ferrari: Carlos Sainz/Charles Leclerc
Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas/Guanyu Zhou
AlphaTauri: Pierre Gasly
Alpine: Esteban Ocon
Aston-Martin: Lance Stroll/Sebastian Vettel
Williams: Alex Albon/Nicholas Latifi
haas: Mike Schumacher/Nikita Mazepin
+++ It starts in a few minutes! +++
The light at the pit exit of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will soon switch to green. Then it starts! Who do you think will hit the track first?
+++ Norris surprised on the first day of testing, Red Bull only in midfield +++
No Red Bull, no Mercedes, no Ferrari: No, McLaren secured the best time on the first day of Formula 1 testing in Barcelona. At the debut of the new Formula 1 generation, Lando Norris turned the fastest lap and thus ensured a positive start for McLaren. At 1:19.568 minutes, the Brit was less than three seconds short of Lewis Hamilton’s pole time from last year, which shows how fast the new Formula 1 cars are.
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who was fastest in the morning, held the best time for a long time, but had to give Norris six tenths of a second in the last hour. Leclerc hadn’t been in the car for a long time at that point, because in the afternoon his team-mate Carlos Sainz had taken over the F1-75, which took third place in the day’s classification.
Mercedes finished fourth and fifth on Wednesday. George Russell clocked a time of 1:20.784 minutes in the morning, while Lewis Hamilton was 0.145 seconds behind his new team-mate in the afternoon. Sebastian Vettel finished sixth in his Aston Martin, but he was also only out in the morning.
And Red Bull? On the first day of testing, they only caused a stir with their design. Because for the first time the new RB18 could be seen, whose eye-catching side boxes immediately caught the eye. In terms of sport, however, the racing team let others go first: Max Verstappen tobogganed once through the gravel and had to settle for ninth place, 2.6 seconds behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso.
+++ Hello and welcome to the second day of testing in Barcelona! +++
After a very interesting first day in Barcelona, fewer teams are testing on Thursday. Today’s impressions should still be exciting, from a German point of view, of course, many eyes are on Sebastian Vettel and Mick Schumacher.
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