Hamilton tops the lap charts but Perez fastest for Racing Point

Lewis Hamilton pounded out the laps on the morning of the second day of Formula 1 testing.

After setting the quickest time on day one at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya in the new Mercedes W11, the programme for day two from the team for the six-time champion altered to focus on reliability.

To that end, Hamilton's time was an unremarkable one of one minute 18.387secs, for only seventh on the timesheet and 1.4s adrift of his best lap on Wednesday.

Yet Hamilton completed a mammoth 106 laps during his four hours behind the wheel, effectively just over one and a half times the distance of the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix.

Sergio Perez in the Racing Point, that has drawn considerable attention given it is virtually a clone of Mercedes' 2019 title-winning W10 car, was quickest before the lunch break.

The Mexican clocked a time of 1:17.347s, achieved on the C3 Pirelli compound, the medium tyre of the five made available to all the teams throughout testing.

Renault's Daniel Ricciardo was four-tenths of a second adrift of Perez, also on the C3, with the leading duo completing fewer laps combined than Hamilton managed on his own. Perez chalked up 48 laps, Ricciardo 41.

In his first outing behind the wheel of the RB16, Red Bull's Alex Albon was eight-tenths of a second behind Perez, albeit only utilising the C2 hard compound for his best lap of 1:18.155s.

AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was just 0.010s behind Albon, but on the C3, with Williams' George Russell and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari also using the medium rubber, with the duo fifth and sixth quickest ahead of Hamilton.

Gasly suffered an embarrassing moment when he spun after just six minutes, albeit without penalty, other than a red face.

From Albon in third down to 10th-placed Lando Norris in his McLaren, just four-tenths of a second separated the eight drivers.

Haas' Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo were eighth and ninth on the timesheet on the C3, with Norris deploying the C2 for his 1:18.537s.

Pre-season Testing Results – Thursday 20 February
1 Sergio Perez BWT Racing Point 48 Laps 1:17.347 C3
2 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 41 Laps +0.402 C3
3 Alex Albon Aston Martin Red Bull Racing 59 Laps +0.808 C2
4 Pierre Gasly Scuderia AlphaTauri 77 Laps +0.818 C3
5 George Russell ROKiT Williams 71 Laps +0.919 C3
6 Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow 49 Laps +0.988 C3
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes-AMG Petronas 106 Laps +1.040 C1
8 Romain Grosjean Haas 87 Laps +1.149 C3
9 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN 65 Laps +1.161 C3
10 Lando Norris McLaren 48 Laps +1.190 C2

Tyres
C1 (Hardest)C2 (Hard)C3 (Medium)C4 (Soft)C5 (Softest)

Related

F1 Today

F1 News Today: Hamilton details Mercedes split as team release announced

• Yesterday 16:09

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton details Mercedes SPLIT as new focus revealed

• Yesterday 14:12