Leclerc tops day two of F1 testing as Gasly crashes out

Charles Leclerc closed out the second day of Formula 1 pre-season testing fastest for Ferrari after his morning benchmark went unbeaten through the afternoon session.

Leclerc lapped within one-tenth of a second of Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel’s Monday time in the opening session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Tuesday, recording a lap of 1m18.247s.

The time was good enough to give Leclerc top spot come the end of the day as Ferrari enjoyed another strong day of running, completing over 158 laps.

A late improvement saw Lando Norris finish the day second for McLaren, finishing three-tenths of a second back from Leclerc's time with over 100 laps completed in the MCL34 as the team continued its solid start to pre-season testing.

Kevin Magnussen took P3 for Haas, but missed the final couple of hours of the session due to a seat issue. Haas reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi deputised for the final portion of running, albeit completing only four laps.

Alexander Albon bounced back from an early morning spin and red flag to finish the day fourth for Toro Rosso, being one of the few drivers to improve his time in the afternoon session and edge clear of Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi in P5. Albon's tally of 130 laps in his first extended F1 test put him second only to Leclerc for mileage.

Mercedes split running between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas once again on Tuesday in Barcelona, sending them out for the morning and afternoon sessions respectively. The team once again focused on long-run pace, with Bottas ending the day sixth as Hamilton took P10.

Pierre Gasly was responsible for causing the only red flag of the afternoon session after spinning into the wall at Turn 12, bringing his day to an early end in the process due to damage to the rear of the RB15 car.

Having experienced a rear wing failure with Daniel Ricciardo in the car earlier in the day, Renault enjoyed a less troublesome afternoon as Nico Hulkenberg took over the reins of the R.S.19 car. Hulkenberg focused solely on race simulations, leaving him eighth-fastest with over one race distance completed.

Another team experiencing an upturn in fortunes was Racing Point. After only completing 30 laps on Monday in the first run of the new RP19 car, the team racked up over a race distance on Tuesday as Lance Stroll took over from Sergio Perez.

Stroll’s time was 2.2 seconds off Leclerc’s benchmark, leaving him 11th and ahead only of Fittipaldi at the foot of the order in P12.

Testing resumes at 8 am GMT on Wednesday in Barcelona, with another eight hours of running planned.