F1 Pre-Season Testing 2019: Times and Tuesday Analysis from Barcelona
Feb 19, 2019
Charles Leclerc turned out for Ferrari for the first time on Tuesday at Formula One testing in Barcelona and finished on top of the time sheets.
All eyes were on the young Frenchman on Day 2 of testing, with big things expected of him following his move to the Scuderia from Sauber. His mark of one minute, 18.247 seconds gave him the quickest lap of the day.
Elsewhere, defending world champion Lewis Hamilton was also out on track, with Mercedes focusing on getting laps under their belt over speed in the morning runs; the Briton was 10th in the standings after completing 74 laps.
Daniel Ricciardo had a scare as he seeks to get to grips with his Renault, losing the rear wing and spinning off in the morning session.
Here are the standings from the morning sessions, with the teams set to send drivers out again later in the day:
— Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (@Circuitcat_eng) February 19, 2019
Tuesday Recap
With some teams splitting their drivers between morning and afternoon and others opting for a full day, Tuesday was another chance to see some new faces in different cars at Barcelona.
Alexander Albon was understandably keen to make an impression on his debut for Toro Rosso, although his eagerness got the better of him just minutes after the session started:
Not quite how Alex Albon will have imagined the start of his F1 career 🙈
Elsewhere, Leclerc was seeking to build on a strong start to testing for Ferrari, with Sebastian Vettel on top on Monday.
At just 21, there's a lot of pressure on the Frenchman to thrive with the iconic constructor this year, especially given he's replacing a legend of the sport in Kimi Raikkonen. The early signs were positive for Leclerc, as he posted 157 laps as well as the quickest time of the session.
Mercedes didn't appear too concerned about being behind their main rivals again, though, with Hamilton keeping things under control during his 74 loops in Catalonia. The team noted they're still running some tests on the W10 model:
That hairy moment prompted the Renault engineers to pull the Australian in for the remainder of the session, with the team's Twitter account confirming "rear-wing assessing is in full flow."
McLaren produced a fine day's work as Lando Norris posted the second-fastest time of the day after completing 104 laps.
The 19-year-old has risen through the ranks of the company's development programme and will have British racing fans off their seat in 2019 as they support the Bristol-born prodigy.
