Barcelona Pre-Season Testing: Normalcy restored as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell put Mercedes on top


Barcelona Pre-Season Testing: Normalcy restored as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell put Mercedes on top

Lewis Hamilton cruising on his W13 challenger at Barcelona today

The pre-season testing for the 2022 Formula One season which started on Wednesday earlier this week has come to an end today ahead of the first Grand Prix in Bahrain next month. Mercedes who were finding it difficult on the first two days of testing to find their way into the top two places on the rankings made a powerful statement with Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest time today overall and fellow teammate George Russell clocking in the fastest time in the morning session.

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This comes after an underwhelming Day Two of testing for Mercedes who faced certain issues related to porpoising on the straights.

While newly-promoted Mercedes driver George Russell set a fantastic lap time of 1:19.233, 7-time world champion clocked in the fastest lap of the day with a spectacular 1:19.138. The Mercedes duo claimed the first two spots of the leaderboard today with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez coming a close third in the afternoon session when Pirelli conducted a wet weather tire test.

https://twitter.com/MercedesAMGF1/status/1497260584856739840

Alpine on the other hand didn’t exactly have the best day on the tracks today with them calling in the first red flag of the morning session when Alonso’s A522 started to visibly let out thick fumes. It was later stated by the French racing team that the problem on the tracks was due to a hydraulic issue on their end.

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Pierre Gasly and Sebastian Vettel have an unfortunate ending

Alpine's Fernando Alonso's car letting out thick smoke today
Alpine’s Fernando Alonso’s car letting out thick smoke today

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who had clinched the third spot on the leaderboard on Day Two of testing crashed his AT03 today while Alfa Romeo’s Zhou’s stoppages led to a lot of halts in the session.

Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel seemed to have an unfortunate day at the Catalunya tracks too with him stopping right before the morning session of testing could conclude due to a severe issue of an oil leak that instigated a fire.

Position Driver Team Time No. of laps covered Tyre Used
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:19.138 94 C5
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:19.233 66 C5
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:19.556 74 C4
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:19.756 59 C3
5 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:19.824 48 C5

All the 10 teams will again assemble together next month for the very first Grand Prix of the 2022 Formula One season which will take place in the Bahrain International Circuit right at the heart of the vast Sakhir desert.

Also Read: “No one can get into a Formula One car,” Lewis Hamilton decodes the biggest misconceptions of being an F1 driver

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