Leclerc sets pace on second day of F1 pre-season testing

The Monegasque got within 0.25s of Lando Norris’ benchmark time from the opening day of running in Thursday’s afternoon session with a 1m19.689s on Pirelli’s C3 tyre to continue Ferrari’s impressive start to F1’s new era. 

Pierre Gasly was the only other driver to get into the 1m19s on his first outing of the week for AlphaTauri, with the Frenchman winding up just three-tenths down on Leclerc, having set a late flurry of quick laps on the C4 compound. 

Gasly also completed a mammoth 147-lap haul on Thursday, the most any driver managed single-handedly on day two. 

Morning pacesetter Daniel Ricciardo managed an equally-impressive 126 laps as he ended the day third, ahead of George Russell, who was seen debuting new cooling grills on his Mercedes W13 in the afternoon after taking over from teammate Lewis Hamilton. 

The seven-time world champion managed 40 laps in the morning session and occupied last spot in the timing sheets in 16th. 

Carlos Sainz’s morning effort was good enough to keep him fifth, two tenths clear of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. 

Sergio Perez triggered the first red flag of pre-season testing when he stopped on track with a gearbox issue in the morning session. 

The problem kept the Mexican in the garage for a large spell in the afternoon before he re-emerged to log 78 laps on his way to setting the seventh-quickest time. 

A tenth further back was Nikita Mazepin, who caused a second red flag midway through the afternoon when Haas instructed him to stop after encountering a fuel pump issue. 

Alex Albon produced Williams’ best time of pre-season so far to take ninth. 

After a troubled opening day, Alfa Romeo finally started to get some laps on the board, with F1 rookie Guanyu Zhou completing more than the team’s combined total prior to Thursday afternoon’s session (71) as he completed the top 10. 

The opening pre-season test at Barcelona concludes on Friday. 

Full results from day two of pre-season testing at Barcelona.