Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Circuit de Catalunya, 2019

Leclerc flies for Ferrari as Gasly crashes again

2019 F1 season

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Ferrari bounced back from a disrupted day of running on Wednesday in the best possible way as Charles Leclerc set the fastest time of testing so far on Thursday.

He also completed 138 laps in his final day at the wheel of the team’s SF90 before the Australian Grand Prix. The only disruption to his day came when the Ferrari stopped during the closing minutes of the session, bringing out the red flags.

Leclerc headed the times by six tenths of a second from Alexander Albon, the only other driver to lap inside the 1’17 mark. Lando Norris was third- fastest for McLaren.

Pierre Gasly ended the day with the fourth-best time but also suffered a heavy crash in his Red Bull. The RB15 went off at the high-speed turn nine and made heavy contact with the barrier. Gasly, who also crashed at turn 12 last week, was unhurt.

The Renault pair Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg were next having covered 138 laps between them. Lance Stroll was seventh for Racing Point, who for the first time in the test covered more than 100 laps in a single day.

Antonio Giovinazzi, Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton completed the top 10. George Russell was the busiest driver, putting another 140 laps on the Williams FW42.

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2019 pre-season test day seven lap times

Pos.Car numberDriverTeamModelBest timeGapLapsTyres
116Charles LeclercFerrariSF901’16.231138C5
223Alexander AlbonToro RossoSTR141’16.8820.651118C5
34Lando NorrisMcLarenMCL341’17.0840.85384C5
410Pierre GaslyRed BullRB151’17.0910.86065C5
53Daniel RicciardoRenaultRS191’17.2040.97365C5
627Nico HulkenbergRenaultRS191’17.4961.26573C5
718Lance StrollRacing PointRP191’17.5561.325103C5
899Antonio GiovinazziAlfa RomeoC381’17.6391.40871C5
98Romain GrosjeanHaasVF-191’17.8541.62316C4
1044Lewis HamiltonMercedesW101’18.0971.86685C2
1163George RussellWilliamsFW421’18.1301.899140C5
1220Kevin MagnussenHaasVF-191’18.1991.96853C3
1377Valtteri BottasMercedesW101’18.8622.63197C3

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2019 F1 season

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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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14 comments on “Leclerc flies for Ferrari as Gasly crashes again”

  1. Mercedes must be looking to cover an entire season worth of mileage.

    I see a repeat of Alo/Ham 07 if the SF90 is the best car. Both drivers will trip over each other while RBR and Merc pick up the pieces.

    Redbull & Honda – no opinion for now.

    And the rest. Its gonna be a nail biting season.

  2. Ferrari is the car to beat at the moment. Quickest over a single lap as well as in race simulations. Mercedes and Redbull are clearly behind at this stage.

    1. @amg44 How do you know that? I would like for it to be true, but where do you find info on stint length and times?

      1. @brolloks
        I guess he was following F1’s live timing screen on their YT-channel, like I was.
        Leclerc was faster than Bottas. Especially his first stint was impressive, where he was consitantly lapping in the 1:23s, even after 20 laps he was still doing a 1:23.6. Bottas on the other hand started quite good, but by the end of his first stint lapped in the 1:24s.
        In the 2nd stint Leclerc started out great, lapping consistently in the mid 1:21s, before he caught Stroll, who he was unable to overtake then had to back off and pitted earlier than expected for his final set of tyres.
        Again in his final stint Leclerc started very fast, even setting two laps in the 1:19s (Bottas did low 1:20s, though I did not follow his whole final stint), then lapping consistently in the low to mid 1:20s.

        This just confirms the overall picture that Ferrari have the fastest car here, but not by huge amount, 0.3-0.4 it seems in race trim and might be bigger in quali-runs.
        The only worry I have, is that the Ferrari seems to suffer a lot in traffic. Judging by Vettel’s comments during the first test and seeing Leclerc today struggling to pass Stroll in a slower car.

        1. @srga91, that was the talk coming out, though there is perhaps a slight question over the pace of some teams on the long runs because the cooler conditions are causing cold graining of the front tyres. I think that both Mercedes and Red Bull have indicated that they are suffering from that issue, so it is possible that the gap might be a touch smaller in the warmer conditions that we would expect to see during most races.

        2. @srga91 Thank you.

  3. I know I shoundn’t, but I’m starting to get worried by mercedes

    1. Be great to see them have to fight. The tantrums from a confused Hamilton would be hilarious!

      1. They fought and won last 2 Championships.

        1. I’m talking about a real fight. Not a ‘still get a podium on a Hamilton off day because Vettel can’t keep it on the track’ fight.

          I’d love to see him really put to the test fighting for the top six.

  4. I see a lot of hype trains from people who have learnt nothing from testing meaning nothing in previous years.

    For instance, in 2018, Ferrari was 1.2 seconds ahead of the fastest Merc in testing.

    Just saying.

    1. @ho3n3r Difference is that it was obvious last season that Mercedes had the best car, as it looked the most stable on track and they were clearly sandbagging. This year, the car doesn’t look as good on-track as the Ferrari.

  5. I’m getting a little worried for DanR, both he and Hulk are out there on the C5 and I would expect them to be competing, I know it’s only testing but that STR time looks ominous. Conversely I have no worries about MB-AMG.

  6. A low 1:15 is possible on the C5, with these track conditions at Barcelona. I reckon it’ll be close come Q3 in Melbourne!

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