Charles Leclerc quickest for Ferrari on second day of testing as teams hit trouble

Formula 1

Leclerc quickest for Ferrari on second day of testing as teams hit trouble

Two cars stopped on track as teams battled 'porpoising'

Ewan Gale

Thursday 24 February 2022 18:10 Updated: 18:50

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished day two of pre-season testing quickest at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Leclerc finished with a lap time of one minute 19.689secs, with Gasly just two-tenths adrift. More importantly, the Monégasque completed 79 laps, taking Ferrari's total to 150 after Carlos Sainz completed 71 laps in the morning.

McLaren's strong test continued with Daniel Ricciardo finishing third fastest with 126 laps to his name, after earlier setting the fastest time of the morning session.

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The first obstacle for teams to battle against became apparent as 'porpoising' took a hold, with cars bouncing viciously in a straight line.

George Russell added more knowledge of the Mercedes W13 to his belt with 66 laps in the afternoon, with the Silver Arrows quietly going about their business with 106 total laps for the day.

Lewis Hamilton, who had driven in the morning session, only completed 40 for the day [the second lowest total] and was the slowest overall with a time of 1:22.562s..

There was drama for Red Bull in the morning with Sergio Perez stopping on track and despite missing the start of the afternoon's running, the Mexican did make it back onto the circuit to complete 78 laps for the day.

Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi added 108 laps for Williams, whilst Guanyu Zhou completed more than a race distance on his maiden outing for Alfa Romeo.

The Chinese driver followed on from another poor morning for the team where Valtteri Bottas completed just 21 laps.

Esteban Ocon was the only driver other than Gasly and Ricciardo to hit 100-plus tours of the Barcelona venue, although Alpine again kept its performance close to its chest during its programme.

Haas hit trouble in the afternoon with Nikita Mazepin, who stopped on track with a fuel pump issue, although he was able to rejoin the track later in the day.