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2022 Formula 1 Barcelona February testing

Spain
Feb 23, 2022 to Feb 25, 2022
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, ES
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Formula 1 Barcelona February testing

F1 Barcelona pre-season test - Day 2

Minute by minute updates on the second day of the 2022 Barcelona F1 pre-season test

Esteban Ocon, Alpine A522

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Breaking news

PLUS: The defiant hope behind Ferrari's vital 2022 F1 mission

Ferrari has taken a bold approach with its new 2022 Formula 1 car, that was long in its gestation. Now the pressure is on the storied Italian team - as LUKE SMITH explains:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/how-ferrari-is-going-big-to-become-an-f1-winner-once-more/8455279/

Breaking news

F1 Barcelona test day 2 - afternoon drivers

20 minutes until the afternoon session commences. Here's a reminder of the line-up for the post-lunch running:

Mercedes: Russell
Red Bull: Perez
Ferrari: Leclerc
McLaren: Ricciardo
Alpine: Ocon
AlphaTauri: Gasly
Aston Martin: Vettel
Williams: Latifi
Alfa Romeo: Zhou
Haas: Mazepin

Quote
The lunchtime press conferences are underway. Sebastian Vettel was asked about the Russian GP: "Obviously if you look at the calendar, we have a race scheduled in Russia. For myself, my own opinion is I should not go, I will not go. I think it’s wrong to race in that country."
Breaking news

Report: Ricciardo tops red flagged F1 Barcelona test day 2 morning

McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo set the fastest time on the second morning of Formula 1’s first 2022 pre-season test, which is taking place at Barcelona:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/2022-f1-barcelona-test-report-day-2/8457511/

The customary series of practice starts is upon us, as the cars line up on the grid - some with more optimistic grid slots than what they'll realistically achieve...
Checkered flag
Time's up, folks! That's your lot for this morning - Ricciardo remains fastest from Sainz, with Gasly P3.
Stopwatch
Bottas brings his time down to a 1m22.288, continuing a run on the C3 tyres. He's up to 18 laps for the morning now after only sporadic periods on track.
That's a 1m22.335s for Bottas this time around, moving up to P7 ahead of Perez and Hamilton.
Ah, it only counted Bottas' last two sectors on a pit exit lap, hence his erroneously quick time. He's still P9 with a best time of 1m22.858s, but is setting personal bests...
Bottas is apparently showing with a 1m04.839s - not a time counted for the leaderboard, but he's found some kind of pace with the Alfa Romeo. Presumably by missing some corners...
Stopwatch
Gasly moves up to P2 with a 1m20.764s, but he's immediately shuffled down a spot as Ricciardo logs a 1m20.355s to go fastest! Albon posts a 1m21.531s lap immediately after.
Ricciardo, Albon, Stroll, Schumacher and Ocon have all got out on track, as has Sainz. It's going to be a busy end to the session.
Green flag
Running has now resumed, Gasly getting us back underway for the final 15 minutes of the morning session.
Matt Kew
Matt Kew
Perez's Red Bull covered up and being returned to the team garage

Perez's Red Bull covered up and being returned to the team garage

Photo by: Matt Kew

There's 20 minutes left in this morning session - hopefully we'll get going again relatively soon. Red Bull is bringing its RB18 back to base - the pitlane entry klaxon's just gone off, prompting a mass of movement from the media centre in the direction of the window.
Matt Kew
Matt Kew
"Red Bull has arrived with effectively a full body bag for the RB18. The car has been lifted six inches or so and the cover slides completely underneath and wraps over the top to fend off any keen onlookers. Speaking of which, the Williams guys here are impressed by the tailor-made cloth."
Matt Kew
Matt Kew
Perez jumps out of the Red Bull as track marshals arrive on the scene

Perez jumps out of the Red Bull as track marshals arrive on the scene

Photo by: Matt Kew

A handful of Red Bull personnel has clambered into a course car in order to go and recover Perez's stranded car.
Matt Kew
"Our first red flag, Perez has stopped on the exit of Turn 13 - the action hot spot in the last 15 minutes. He disappeared out of view through 12 and took an age to reappear. But it’s engine off and he’s coasted to a halt."
Red flag

Red flag

Sergio Perez has stopped on the exit of Turn 13, bringing out our first red flag of the test.
Matt Kew
Matt Kew
"Hamilton isn’t getting on too well with this new set of C3 Pirellis. On his out lap there was a big lock up from the front-left into Turn 10, then again next time around. And for good measure, he then locked the front right at Turn 13 so it didn’t feel left out. Then, the Merc has come round again and aborted Turn 13 altogether. Perhaps there’s been a lot of tweaking to the set-up to try and combat the W13’s penchant for porpoising. Either way, it looks unwieldy."
Stopwatch
It's a 1m20.948s for Ricciardo, who shuffles up to second place in the timings, going just under 0.2s faster than Gasly.
Perez and Gasly were getting very racey along the start/finish straight, Gasly tucked up right behind the Red Bull. Perhaps a bit of wake exploration from the Red Bull-owned teams on the grid?
Gasly sets a purple first sector, but his latter two sectors are some way off of his own best efforts. Thus, no improvement for the time being.
Breaking news

With 45 minutes on the clock, the timings look like this:

  1. Sainz, Ferrari, 1m20.546s, C3 - 61 laps
  2. Gasly, AlphaTauri, 1m21.132s, C3 - 41
  3. Albon, Williams, 1m21.657s, C3 - 30
  4. Ricciardo, McLaren, 1m21.698s, C2 - 51
  5. Stroll, Aston Martin, 1m21.920s, C3 - 47
  6. Schumacher, Haas, 1m21.949s, C3 - 53
  7. Perez, Red Bull, 1m22.412s, C2 - 34
  8. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m22.562s, C2 - 39
  9. Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1m22.858s, C3 - 12
  10. Ocon, Alpine, 1m23.280s, C2 - 52
Hamilton draws out of the pits now, as Gasly drops a personal best - a 1m21.132s - on the C3 tyres. Albon's out on C3s and Ocon's also running C2 rubber.
Albon takes to the track too after a bit of a layoff - his session stalling out after 26 laps in the Williams FW44.
Sainz very much has the circuit to himself at this point. We're into the final hour of this morning's action and he's just chalked up his 60th lap. That said, as I type this, I hear Ocon departing the pitlane.
Matt Kew
Matt Kew

"We have a spinner. The Haas, which has looked convincing in Schumacher’s hands so far today, has just swapped ends on entry into Turn 13. The configurable layout with asphalt to spare means it was a fairly harmless error and he’s soon back on his way."

Stroll moves up to P5 with a 1m21.920s on the C3 tyres, as he approaches his 50th lap of the day. Sainz continues to add to his lap count, as Schumacher pits.
Luke Smith
Luke Smith
"Lots of teams are struggling with the porpoising issue on the straights as the cars judder up and down. A big battle for them through testing will be combatting the problem and getting on top of it as best possible. Still no red flags thus far today, which is pretty impressive all things considered!"
Luke Smith
Luke Smith

"It's been another tricky morning for Alfa Romeo, just 12 laps completed by Valtteri Bottas thus far. That's a grand total of 44 as we near the halfway point of the test. To put that into context, Sainz and Ricciardo have managed more than that this morning alone..."

 

It's Mick Schumacher who wins out, his name worth 34 points to Nikita Mazepin's 30. Neither can beat Antonio Giovinazzi's 39 points, the double-Z worth 20 points alone.
Alexander Albon (24) and rookie Guanyu Zhou (26) sit below Max Verstappen, who awards 29 points. That just leaves the Haas duo...
Daniel Ricciardo would net you 20 points, same as Sebastian Vettel, while Lewis Hamilton is worth 21 points. Carlos Sainz and Nicholas Latifi offer 22 points each, with Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc both on 23 points.
Lowest score is Lando Norris with a mere 12 points, with Lance Stroll just ahead on 13. Esteban Ocon scores 15, tied with George Russell. The other below-20 pointers are Pierre Gasly (17), Valtteri Bottas (19) and Yuki Tsunoda (19).
Breaking news
We've crunched the numbers, and done some very important work here - finding out who replaces Antonio Giovinazzi as the F1 driver with the highest Scrabble score. Are you ready? Let's begin.
Schumacher shuffles up to P5 with a 1m21.949s lap, having logged 45 laps this morning now. He's continuing to put mileage on the VF-22.

By: Haydn Cobb

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