Result Barcelona F1 Test 2019 (Day 6): Best time for Leclerc

2019/02/28
Tobias Grüner

The Formula 1 winter tests increased speed on the seventh day. The 13 riders who made their rounds on Thursday (02/28/2019) at the Catalunya Grand Prix Circuit offered fans a lot of fun and action. Especially Ferrari delivered in person from Charles Leclerc of a great show. The young Monegasque was on his last test for the first time with soft tires and little fuel on the way.

As part of a qualifying practice session, Ferrari needed just 1: 16.281 minutes for the 4,655-kilometer loop. No other rider has gone so fast in this winter test. The Leclerc mark was just over a tenth over Lewis Hamilton's pole position time at the Spanish Grand Prix last year. This shows that the 2019 Formula 1, unlike the predictions during the winter, did not lose anything in speed.

The Scuderia newcomer was not even in the limit, as he himself admitted: "Of course, we left some air in the car. And I, as a pilot, still have to learn and improve." Even more impressive than the best lap with the soft Pirelli C5 tires were a lap of 1.17.2 minutes that Leclerc also picked up on C2 in the morning. In theory, the difference in grip of the two blends is worth more than a second and a half.

Leclerc was not just fast on a lap. In the afternoon, the 21-year-old completed an impressive race simulation. The comparison with Valtteri Bottas, who played the same exercise simultaneously in the Mercedes, revealed an advantage for the red car. And also in terms of reliability, Ferrari seems to be well resolved. After finding the cause of the Vettel accident the day before, Leclerc completed 138 laps. Only in the final minutes of the SF90, but still again on the track, but this did not cost much training time.

In the kilometer classification Mercedes could continue as usual. Lewis Hamilton in the morning and Valtteri Bottas in the afternoon added 181 rounds. The best hunting category traditionally waits until qualifying at the Silver Arrows field in Melbourne. And so Hamilton and Bottas met once more on the lower half of the table.

Gasly dismounts the Red Bull driver

Pierre Gasly, with about eight tenths of deficit, made the fourth best time of all, but also drove the very soft C5, but in the afternoon the French made a high-speed turn on the 9th shift, which ended rudely in the gang. After 65 laps, the RB15 had to be transported in individual parts to the garage.

A better figure was Toro Rosso's sister team. Rookie Alexander Albon was the first driver in the winter test to reach the 1.17 mark. The best staff of 1: 16,882 minutes was later weakened only by Leclerc. And with 118 laps, the Honda driver from Faenza also showed a decent reliability.

McLaren also appeared after two better times earlier this week again relatively high in the rankings. However, unlike Albon's rookie, Lando Norris narrowly missed the 1.16 mark. In terms of mileage, the MCL34 could not keep up with Toro Rosso. The Papaya rider came in total only 84 laps.

At Renault, Nico Hülkenberg (early) and Daniel Ricciardo (afternoon) shared the work again. The small difference of only 3 tenths indicated that the two teammates were traveling in a similar program. After all, the fastest laps were enough for places 5 and 6. In the morning, Hülkenberg caused some surprise among the observers when he opted for aerodynamic measurements with a rear wing partially painted white.

Problems with Alpha and Haas

With more difficulty, the two teams of Ferrari customers had to fight on Thursday. Antonio Giovinazzi in the Alfa-Sauber came only in 71 laps. For the reasons, the team was buttoned: "We had several problems to solve immediately". At Haas, those responsible showed something more concrete. A lack of escape meant that Romain Grosjean could not start his late shift until three-quarters of an hour before the end of the session.

The driver, who got more laps on Thursday, was surprisingly at Williams. George Russell completed a race simulation in the afternoon and reached a total of 140 laps. In terms of speed, the FW42, but can not keep up with the rest of the field. Russell finished just 11th on the timesheet, despite the soft C5 tires.

In the gallery, we show once again the best pictures of the day.

Result Barcelona F1 Test 2019 – Day 7