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Formula 1 Barcelona February Testing

F1 Barcelona pre-season test - Day 1

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

Nicholas Latifi, Williams FW44, with aero paint applied

All 10 teams are in action for the first official track running in the new era of F1, as the teams begin testing the new cars devised under the new technical regulations.

Track action gets underway at 8am GMT, while Haas is presenting its VF-22 F1 car to the media in the pitlane before the track opens, with the opening day finishing at 5pm GMT. The day will be split by a one-hour lunch break (12pm-1pm GMT) which can be reduced if requested due to lost track time from either red flags or poor weather conditions.

The opening day will provide the first real look at all of the 2022 F1 cars from every team, to see which teams have got it right and which have work to do. While never fully taken as the true pecking order, due to teams hiding outright performance levels by sandbagging their speeds, the tests still reveal an overview while giving teams which are struggling nowhere to hide.

The Barcelona shakedown test, conducted without live TV coverage or live timing, runs between 23-25 February. A second official test will follow in Bahrain on 10-12 March ahead of the 2022 F1 season opener at the same venue, the Bahrain Grand Prix, on 18-20 March.

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We missed Ferrari breaking the 100 laps mark before Mercedes did - apologies, we did you dirty there! A caffeine booster shot would really hit the spot about now...

F1 Barcelona day 1 lap counts so far...

This has probably changed already, but whatevs:

Ferrari - 105
Mercedes - 102
Red Bull - 101
Williams - 82
Alpine - 73
AlphaTauri - 69
Aston Martin - 66
McLaren - 63
Haas - 28
Alfa Romeo - 19

Breaking news

Unless I'm very much mistaken, Mercedes has now cracked the 100 lap barrier - Russell on 77, Hamilton on 24. Verstappen has also just gone out and broken the 100 mark himself. Give me two minutes alone with a calculator and we'll have team lap counts for you...

In among all the fun over mistaken identities, we've missed Stroll move up to P12. The Canadian is continuing to circulate, now on his 15th lap of the day, while Albon, Tsunoda, Hamilton and not-Ocon (that's Alonso) also out there.
The timing screens have spent the afternoons lying to us - that's Alonso on track, not Ocon. We will strike his name from the record forthwith.
Alex Albon has finally set a time after a series of installappery. It's a 1m22.938s out of the box, sending him up to P9 on the C3 tyres.
Matt Kew
Matt Kew
"Norris is having a hard time finding some space on track, what with all drivers seemingly reluctant so far this afternoon to follow one another (unlike what we saw in episodes this morning). That’s consecutive laps the McLaren driver has had to bail out through Turn 10 to avoid first the Haas and then the Ferrari."
Schumacher is beginning to bring his time down, getting into the 1m26s, as he has a little bit of a race with Sainz across the line. Ocon's running around on what appears to be the C1 tyres, while Norris is also adding to his lap count.
The Alpine driver's brought that time down to a 1m24.867s, moving Ocon up to P12. In other news: Hamilton and Sainz have come in, while Norris and Schumacher have gone out on track.
Esteban Ocon's out for the first time today, setting his first time of 2022 testing - a 1m26.208s. Albon's yet to set a time after going in and out of the pits.
Sainz has punched in a 1m22.134s on the C2s to go seventh fastest so far, as Norris has returned to the pits. Appears Norris stopped down at the pit exit before his run - but seemed to suffer no ill problems during his stint.
Albon's come out on track now too, as the circuit becomes a little busier.
Matt Kew
Matt Kew
Mercedes and McLaren have turned it up this afternoon - their cars are much louder than others so far.
Hamilton leaps up to P5 with a 1m21.576s, eclipsing Verstappen and Tsunoda, on the C3 tyre. Norris is circulating on the C2 rubber, as is Verstappen who's gone back out. Sainz is also returning to the circuit.
Stroll's now got into the 1m26s, while Tsunoda is setting consistent 1m24s on a long C2 run. Hamilton also gets back on track, as does Norris for the first time this afternoon.
The Aston Martin has now set a couple of laps in the 1m30s as Stroll gets to grips with the AMR22. Verstappen, meanwhile, pitted a little while ago - but Tsunoda continues to log laps in the AlphaTauri. Matt Kew, watching trackside, says that the AT03 has flow-vis paint on the side we can't see in the media centre...
Stopwatch
The Spanish driver brings that time down to a 1m22.516s, closing in on Verstappen's time from the morning session. Meanwhile, Lance Stroll makes his first appearance of the test and slinks out of the pitlane.
Stopwatch
It's a 1m22.666s - a delightfully devilish laptime from Sainz on the C4 tyres. That moves him up to P7 overall, about 0.4s off Verstappen's P6 time.
Sainz returns to the track, as Verstappen and Tsunoda continue their runs. It seems like the afternoon will be dedicated to long runs, at least, it seems that way at this stage. Sainz is on some red tyres, though, so hopefully he lights it up.
Fittingly, Verstappen - the #1 - is out on the C1s, and Tsunoda - #22 - is on the C2s. So that's a nice little coincidence.
Hamilton now enacts a swap deal, ending his run on the C3s as Verstappen and Tsunoda go out on track in his place.
Stopwatch
And, indeed, it's a 1m23.382s for Hamilton now, which brings him to within 0.003s of Latifi's eighth-fastest time.
Now the only man on track, Hamilton managed to lower his own bar with a 1m23.539s, following that up with a nearly two-minute cooldown lap.
Stopwatch
Hamilton logs a 1m23.994s, moving him up to ninth place. Sainz, meanwhile, has just pitted after a couple of exploratory laps - punching in a 1m24.526s.
That's a 1m24.981s for Bottas now, who continues to chip away at his time. Hamilton and Sainz now cross the line to begin their first timed laps.
Pit stop
Verstappen comes back in after a run on the C1 tyres, as Hamilton now emerges on track on a set of C3s.
Stopwatch
And indeed it does - Bottas now sets a 1m25.120s to move up to P10 in the overall timing boards.
Stopwatch
That's now a 1m25.910s for Bottas, exactly 0.001s off Kubica's time from this morning. The Finn will continue to bring that down over time.
Verstappen's kicked on in the 1m25s, suggesting he's taking it easy - simply settling into the long runs for the afternoon shift.
Stopwatch
Bottas posts a 1m26.788s first time around, followed by a 1m26.043s to go P11 for the time being.
If you spotted that earlier mistake, it's Bottas on-track - not Schumacher. Alfa had slightly curtailed running earlier owing to a small problem, which kept Kubica stuck largely in the garage.
Verstappen kicks off the afternoon running, leaving the pitlane in his Red Bull RB18. Bottas also joins him on the road in his Alfa Romeo.

 

I was about to complain that it was far too quiet in the pitlane, but there's some NOISE! Someone's fired up and ready to kick off the afternoon running...we hope.
Breaking news

Hamilton: F1 must ensure it has unbiased stewards

The Mercedes driver has called on Formula 1 to ensure it has unbiased stewards officiating races:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/hamilton-f1-must-ensure-it-has-unbiased-stewards/8429231/

Any takers? No? Okay - unlike the morning rush to get an installation lap in, the teams are presumably polishing off lunches ahead of the final four-hour stretch.
Green flag

F1 Barcelona afternoon testing begins

Let's get this show back on the road!

And here's the lap-counts from this morning's runners:

Leclerc  - 80
Verstappen - 80
Russell - 77
Latifi - 66
Alonso - 54
Vettel - 52
Norris - 50
Tsunoda - 44
Mazepin - 20
Kubica - 9

Breaking news

F1 Barcelona pre-season testing Day 1 PM line-ups

Mercedes: Hamilton
Red Bull: Verstappen
Ferrari: Sainz
McLaren: Norris
Alpine: Alonso
AlphaTauri: Tsunoda
Aston Martin: Stroll
Williams: Albon
Alfa Romeo: Bottas
Haas: Schumacher
Just under 10 minutes to go until we get back up and running for Part 2 of the first day of 2022 pre-season testing. Here's who will be in the hot seats...

By: Haydn Cobb

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