Antonio Giovinazzi, Alfa Romeo, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Giovinazzi leads as pre-season testing resumes

2019 F1 season

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Antonio Giovinazzi put Alfa Romeo ahead on the first morning of the season test for the 2019 F1 season.

Giovinazzi’s best, a 1’18.589, was eight-tenths of a second shy of the team’s best time from testing last week. But others have already improved on their previous benchmarks.

Pierre Gasly went second-quickest for Red Bull, setting their best time of pre-season testing so far with a 1’18.647. Fourth-placed Lance Stroll also set a new best for Racing Point.

These two were separated by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who experienced the team’s first hiccup of testing so far as a cooling problem limited him to just 28 laps. Sebastian Vettel is due to take over the SF90 this afternoon.

George Russell improved Williams’ previous best time by over 1.3 seconds. He ended the session sixth-fastest behind Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and just two-hundredths ahead of Alexander Albon’s Toro Rosso.

Mercedes brought a heavily revised W10 for Lewis Hamilton including a new nose, front wing and engine cover. The world champion covered 83 laps, a total only Magnussen bettered.

Lando Norris caused the only red flag of the morning session when his McLaren came to a stop with an unspecified fault.

2019 pre-season test day five morning times

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLapsTyres
199Antonio GiovinazziAlfa RomeoC381’18.58956C4
210Pierre GaslyRed BullRB151’18.6470.05861C3
316Charles LeclercFerrariSF901’18.6510.06229C3
418Lance StrollRacing PointRP191’19.1390.55044Prototype
520Kevin MagnussenHaasVF-191’19.6441.05584C2
663George RussellWilliamsFW421’19.6621.07346C5
723Alexander AlbonToro RossoSTR141’19.6891.10039C3
844Lewis HamiltonMercedesW101’20.3321.74383C2
927Nico HulkenbergRenaultRS191’20.3481.75980C3
104Lando NorrisMcLarenMCL341’22.3063.71738C3

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “Giovinazzi leads as pre-season testing resumes”

  1. good to see the Williams finally in a sub-80 sec lap time.

    1. Unfortunately it was on a compound softer than anyone else. Two compounds softer than most. =(

  2. petebaldwin (@)
    26th February 2019, 16:40

    Can I please retract my vote for Mercedes as the best looking car. The new nose looks horrible!!

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