Sainz, Leclerc and Shwartzman fill top three for Ferrari in final F1 test of 2022

Ferrari’s drivers filled the top three positions in Formula 1’s single day of post-season testing at Yas Marina Circuit on Tuesday.

The day ran as a single nine-hour session, and with each team able to run two cars. One was specifically for a driver with less than three grand prix starts to their name, and the other was to used primarily for testing prototypes of Pirelli’s 2023 tyres.

Ferrari ran their junior Robert Shwartzman in their ‘young driver’ car, while their usual race weekend line-up shared the second vehicle. Charles Leclerc ran the majority of the day before handing over to Carlos Sainz Jnr for the final three-and-a-half hours.

Sainz set the fastest lap, on a more rubbered-in track, with a 1:25’245 effort which put him 0.138 seconds ahead of Leclerc, but almost one-and-a-half seconds off Max Verstappen’s pole position time from last weekend. Sainz also covered more laps than Leclerc, 65 to his team mate’s 56.

Leclerc had lost useful track time earlier in the day due to yellow and red flags. New AlphaTauri signing Nyck de Vries, Red Bull’s reserve driver Liam Lawson and Shwartzman – who was third fastest overall – had spins early on, then Oscar Piastri caused a stoppage when his McLaren stopped on track.

There was a later red flag period for debris too, before the handovers at several teams. Fernando Alonso, driving a sponsor-free Aston Martin as he remains contracted as an Alpine driver, got out of his car so Lance Stroll could drive it. Sergio Perez gave up his Red Bull to Max Verstappen and Mercedes swapped George Russell for Lewis Hamilton.

Pierre Gasly got his first taste of life as an Alpine driver, in unbranded overalls, by going fourth-fastest ahead of Verstappen plus new Williams duo Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant. De Vries had a productive start to his time at AlphaTauri, as he set more laps than anyone else and was eighth-fastest.

Other young drivers taking part in the test included Lawson in 10th, Alpine junior Jack Doohan in 11th, Formula 2 champions Oscar Piastri and Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin) in 14th and 15th, Haas reserve Pietro Fittipaldi in 21st and then F2 team mates Frederik Vesti (Mercedes) and Theo Pourchaire (Alfa Romeo) at the bottom of the times.

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Pos.	Car number	Driver	Team	Model	Best time	Gap	Laps
1	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	F1-75	1’25.245		65
2	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	F1-75	1’25.383	0.138	56
3	39	Robert Shwartzman	Ferrari	F1-75	1’25.400	0.155	116
4	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	A522	1’25.689	0.444	130
5	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB18	1’25.845	0.600	76
6	23	Alexander Albon	Williams	FW44	1’25.959	0.714	118
7	45	Logan Sargeant	Williams	FW44	1’26.063	0.818	82
8	41	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri	AT03	1’26.111	0.866	151
9	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	AMR22	1’26.263	1.018	70
10	36	Liam Lawson	Red Bull	RB18	1’26.281	1.036	111
11	82	Jack Doohan	Alpine	A522	1’26.297	1.052	111
12	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	AMR22	1’26.312	1.067	97
13	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB18	1’26.333	1.088	88
14	28	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	MCL36	1’26.340	1.095	123
15	34	Felipe Drugovich	Aston Martin	AMR22	1’26.595	1.350	106
16	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	C42	1’26.709	1.464	129
17	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W13	1’26.750	1.505	67
18	4	Lando Norris	McLaren	MCL36	1’26.890	1.645	115
19	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	VF-22	1’27.000	1.755	110
20	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	AT03	1’27.123	1.878	135
21	51	Pietro Fittipaldi	Haas	VF-22	1’27.172	1.927	99
22	21	Frederik Vesti	Mercedes	W13	1’27.216	1.971	124
23	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W13	1’27.240	1.995	73
24	98	Theo Pourchaire	Alfa Romeo	C42	1’27.591	2.346	106

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