Charles Leclerc made an impressive start with Ferrari as he maintained the Italian team’s place at the top of the timesheets on Day 2 of pre-season testing.
Despite a slightly cautious start in the cold temperatures in Barcelona, the Monegasque would soon warm up as he finished within a tenth of teammate Sebastian Vettel’s best time from Monday with a 1m18.247s using the same C3 Pirelli tyres.
That would leave Leclerc a second clear of the rest of the field as Kevin Magnussen moved upto second in the final 30 minutes with a flying lap on the harder C2 compound.
The lap time was the only real positive for Haas, however, as the Dane only completed 33 laps in the morning, the second lowest total of the nine cars on track.
Antonio Giovinazzi was third on a solid debut in the Alfa Romeo, albeit the use of the faster C4 tyres did contribute to his lofty position.
Lando Norris enjoyed a strong start in the McLaren in fourth on the more durable C2 rubber, the equivalent to last year’s medium.
He would lead Pierre Gasly in fifth as Red Bull concentrated on aero work and reliability, putting another 69 laps on the Honda-powered RB15.
There was trouble for their former driver Daniel Ricciardo, however, as the Australian suffered a DRS failure down the main straight in the Renault, narrowly avoiding the barrier at Turn 1.
Lose a chunk of your rear wing ?
Still avoid the barriers ?
Decent reactions, @danielricciardo ?#F1 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/TBzt5ehoDk
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 19, 2019
Ricciardo wouldn’t be seen after the scary moment but for a quick installation lap before the lunch break.
It was another quiet morning for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton in seventh, though the world champion did at least manage to top the lap count with 74 tours of the Spanish circuit to his name, just one more than Leclerc.
Alexander Albon’s F1 career got off to a bad start as he spun into the gravel after four corners within the first minute of the day, causing the only red flag.
The F2 graduate would lose the rear again in the final sector later on, albeit with no repercussions, and gradually he improved his time to sit eighth in a tightly packed group.
Lance Stroll brought up the timesheet in the Racing Point but did at least more than double the team’s mileage so far in testing so far with 45 laps to his name, 15 more than Sergio Perez achieved in the entirety of Monday.
For the afternoon, Valtteri Bottas will take over the Mercedes and Nico Hulkenberg is also scheduled to drive the Renault, though after Ricciardo’s rear wing failure that plan may change.
Full results from Tuesday morning can be seen below:
