Ferrari tops F1 testing: most laps completed and fastest time in first Barcelona session

F1

Charles Leclerc finished the first morning of F1 testing top of the pile for Ferrari. Here is how the first session unfolded

Charles Leclerc, F1-75 2022

Charles Leclerc was fastest in the morning session of F1 testing

DPPI

The Catalunyan dawn lit up a new era in Formula 1 as the new generation of 2022 cars took the track – with an old contender back on top after a morning’s running on Day 1.

Charles Leclerc set fastest time, clocking up 80 laps as Ferrari’s new F1-75 looked strong on its initial outing.

Close behind were some familiar foes from recent and more distant past.

George Russell, who with 77 laps ran third furthest in the morning session, was six-tenths behind him, whilst Lando Norris was a further 0.4sec further back. The McLaren appeared solid on the C2 tyres, whilst the Scuderia car and Silver Arrow were on softer C3s.

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By James Elson

Glinting in the sharp Spanish sun, the new-look field looked breathtaking – with few looking more ominous than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. He may have had the sixth-fastest time, but he matched Lcelerc’s 80 laps. A strong effort from Milton Keynes so far.

Nothing can be gleaned from today’s laptimes, as teams pursue their own testing schedules but, for the record, Yuki Tsunoda was fifth on the monitor with a 1min 22.692sec setting 44 laps, whilst three and a half tenths off him with 54 tours was Fernando Alonso in the new blue and pink Alpine.

Sebastian Vettel’s AMR22 was close behind the Spaniard on a 1min 23.328sec lap, whilst Nicholas Latifi came in eighth, five-hundredths off.

Ninth quickest was Nikita Mazepin, the Haas not appearing to run again – he was over three seconds off Williams’ Canadian driver.

Robert Kubica only had a quartet of laps to his name by lunch , with Alfa reporting a broken part that needed replacing, meaning the Pole failed to set a representative time.