Day 2 of F1 testing belonged to Ferrari and Charles Leclerc.
Leclerc topped the timesheet for Ferrari on day two with Red Bull and Mercedes still quiet at the start of Formula 1 2022.
Leclerc’s time of 1:19.689 was ahead of Pierre Gasly who finished second with Daniel Ricciardo finishing third. Mercedes’ newest recruit, George Russell, finished fourth.
McLaren looked to finish at the top of the standings for a second successive day in Barcelona but the Australian was pushed off the top spot by Leclerc’s time of 1:19.689, which was just over a tenth of a second off Lando Norris’ top time from the first day.
The Australian ultimately finished third, as Pierre Gasly posted the second-fastest time of the day for AlphaTauri.
With Lewis Hamilton finishing at the bottom of the timesheets during F1 testing Mercedes appear to be taking it easy at testing.
However, Russell suggested that the reigning constructor champions were currently behind Ferrari and McLaren, who have taken turns in setting the fastest times for much of the opening two days of the sport’s new era.
“Some teams, a red team and an orange team in particular look very, very competitive,” said Russell.
Red Bull, meanwhile, encountered their first reliability issue of the season as Sergio Perez had to stop on track after gearbox issues.
Russell completed an encouraging 65 laps after Hamilton experienced a limited morning session during which he was able to complete just 40.
However, Mercedes’ total of 105 laps was still significantly greater than the 78 managed by rivals Red Bull, with Perez missing about two hours’ worth of running time before returning and finishing seventh.
Sebastian Vettel set the sixth-fastest time while completing 74 laps for Aston Martin while his teammate Lance Stroll finished 12th after 55 laps.
Carlos Sainz was fifth as Ferrari had another encouraging day but Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto attempted to play down his outfit’s strong start, insisting they are “outsiders not favorites”.
There were encouraging signs for Haas after an inauspicious start for Mazepin as the Russian driver moved up to eighth late in the day, while Alfa Romeo also showed signs of improvement as Chinese rookie Guanyu Zhou completed 71 laps in the afternoon session.
