Lewis Hamilton and George Russell put Mercedes on top of the timesheets at the end of the final day of the first pre-season test for the 2022 F1 season.
After Russell set the pace in the morning session on the the softest tyre compound, Hamilton used them late in the final hour of running to put both Mercedes drivers first and second on the final day and for overall fastest lap times from the test.Red Bull ended the final day third and fourth fastest, with Sergio Perez’s best lap time exactly two tenths quicker than world champion team mate Max Verstappen.
In the morning, Russell’s early benchmark of a 1’19.233 was enough to see him go quickest of the test so far during a disrupted first session in which there were five red flag stoppages.
During the lunch break, Pirelli soaked the circuit to allow for some wet weather tyre running during the afternoon session, which helped to demonstrate the visible impact the new technical regulations have made to how cars disperse spray at high speed.
The track eventually dried out, allowing many of the drivers who had taken over the cars for the afternoon session – namely Hamilton, Perez, Carlos Sainz Jnr and Daniel Ricciardo – to enjoy some runs on the dry tyres. Hamilton used a fresh set of soft tyres to lower the fastest lap of the day and the entire test with a 1’19.138, just under a tenth faster than team mate Russell.
Early problems in the day led to a number of teams cutting their day’s running short. Alpine suffered the most spectacular problems when Fernando Alonso experienced a hydraulic leak which led to a fire on the rear of the A552, which meant Esteban Ocon was unable to get any running in the afternoon.
A similar problem halted Aston Martin. After Sebastian Vettel stopped on circuit prior to the lunch break, Lance Stroll was unable to drive a single lap in the afternoon session as Aston Martin confirmed that an oil leak had caused a similar fire in the AMR22.
Yuki Tsunoda was left sitting in the garage after team mate Pierre Gasly pitched his AlphaTauri into the barriers in the morning session, causing damage that the team was unable to repair in time for Tsunoda to take over in the car.
Valtteri Bottas’s difficult test continued on Friday as he was only able to record 10 laps in the C42 in the afternoon. He has covered the fewest total laps of any of the 20 race drivers to have partaken in the test.
The second three day test will take place in Bahrain between Thursday 10th and Saturday 12th of March.
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2022 pre-season testing day three times:
| Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W13 | 1’19.138 | 94 | |
| 2 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W13 | 1’19.233 | 0.095 | 66 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | RB18 | 1’19.556 | 0.418 | 74 |
| 4 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | RB18 | 1’19.756 | 0.618 | 59 |
| 5 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | AMR22 | 1’19.824 | 0.686 | 48 |
| 6 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | F1-75 | 1’19.831 | 0.693 | 44 |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | F1-75 | 1’20.072 | 0.934 | 92 |
| 8 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | FW44 | 1’20.699 | 1.561 | 94 |
| 9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | MCL36 | 1’20.790 | 1.652 | 13 |
| 10 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | MCL36 | 1’20.827 | 1.689 | 86 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | A522 | 1’21.242 | 2.104 | 52 |
| 12 | 24 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | C42 | 1’21.939 | 2.801 | 12 |
| 13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | AT03 | 1’22.469 | 3.331 | 41 |
| 14 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams | FW44 | 1’22.652 | 3.514 | 40 |
| 15 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | VF-22 | 1’26.229 | 7.091 | 9 |
| 16 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | C42 | 1’30.433 | 11.295 | 10 |
| 17 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | AMR22 | 0 | ||
| 18 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | VF-22 | 0 | ||
| 19 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | A522 | 0 | ||
| 20 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | AT03 | 0 |
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2022 F1 season
- Mercedes told me “you’re wrong” about 2022 car’s problems – Hamilton
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- Steiner “not ashamed” of panning “slow” Schumacher in Drive to Survive
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Stash (@stash)
25th February 2022, 17:46
Is the information on the tires they set their fastest times on unattainable?
Dave (@davewillisporter)
25th February 2022, 17:51
Lewis softest, Max mediums
Boudi
25th February 2022, 18:37
Lewis wasn’t on the softest per what I understood, he was on the C4.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
25th February 2022, 18:42
He was on C5s, but just improved by a couple of thousands over his time on the C4s, 0.003 I think.
J_Olivier
25th February 2022, 21:14
Apparently Hamilton and Russell set their times in C5s, Pérez in C4 and Verstappen in C3. Although as @srga91 said Hamilton’s time in C5s was almost identical to his time in C4. He lost 0.5 s in the last sector so probably lifted.
Stash (@stash)
25th February 2022, 22:09
Thank you for the responses.
J_Olivier
25th February 2022, 22:23
And according to Pirelli in the Barcelona´s conditions “the gap from C3 to C4 is about a second and from C4 to C5 is 0.4s”. Making the corrections it looks close between Mercedes and RB.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
25th February 2022, 18:06
Wait are the rear tyres always this fat last year?
Jere (@jerejj)
25th February 2022, 18:39
@f1fan-2000 Yes & ever since 2017.
Kevin
25th February 2022, 18:32
Gone are the 13-inch tires that have been present for decades, and in their place come 18-inch tires, again provided by sole supplier Pirelli, which has held the role since 2011. The new sizes are part of the wide-ranging technical changes being introduced for 2022. Each driver per weekend has eight Softs, three Mediums and two Hards. “When the drivers tell you there is less overheating because ‘I can push and drive more aggressively and still have the grip and still see the lap time’, that’s the best feedback we can have.
anon
25th February 2022, 22:11
@keithcollantine you should take a look at the post listed here, because the “name” has a link embedded within it and the post itself has cut and pasted the text of a previous article.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th February 2022, 18:37
These tests probably start seeing something closer to real values: mercedes > red bull > ferrari sounds plausible when you know how consistently strong each team is.
Dex
25th February 2022, 19:31
In other words – same old. Who knows, but then I think we know. Money is not the only resource (if we believe that this cap can be truly enforced), teams are far from being equal in terms of capability and that shows. So far it really smells of another 2021 in terms of pecking order, but I hope we get another (Ferrari) team capable of winning on merit.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
25th February 2022, 19:55
Well Mercedes are WCC for nearly a decade…
Anything but P1 is a disappointment by their standards.
Jere (@jerejj)
25th February 2022, 18:41
A shame for Alpine, AM, AT, & Haas.
RicoD (@ricod)
25th February 2022, 19:45
The Mercs usually hide in the back somewhere and turn out to be fastest at season start. Now they are at the top of the timing sheet. Does it mean the car is cr*p? ;-)
Edvaldo
25th February 2022, 20:35
new regs and brand new cars and concepts. Why would anyone sandbag if they aren’t even sure their solution is the best?
Maybe next year when everyone will be aware of what work and what doesn’t.
Mayrton
26th February 2022, 8:02
Good be good indication. Ferrari was always fastest in testing in the past… Mercedes taking the Ferrari role for a season would be a delight.