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Formula 1 Barcelona February Testing

F1 Barcelona pre-season test - Day 3

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

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG

After a busy opening couple of days, all 10 teams complete the first test of the new era of F1 under the new technical regulations.

Track action gets underway at 8am GMT and finishes 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 final day will provide another good 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.

Live Standings

Stopped

Summary

  • Leaderboard

    1. Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m19.138s, C5 - 94 laps
    2. Russell, Mercedes, 1m19.233s, C5 - 66
    3. Perez, Red Bull, 1m19.556s, C4 - 74
    4. Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m19.756s, C3 - 59
    5. Vettel, Aston Martin, 1m19.824s, C5 - 48
    6. Leclerc, Ferrari, 1m19.831s, C3 - 44
    7. Sainz, Ferrari, 1m20.072s, C3 - 92
    8. Albon, Williams, 1m20.318, C4 - 94
    9. Latifi, Williams, 1m20.699s, C4 - 13
    10. Ricciardo, McLaren, 1m20.750, C3 - 86
    11. Norris, McLaren, 1m20.827s, C3 - 52
    12. Alonso, Alpine, 1m21.242s, C3 - 12
    13. Zhou, Alfa Romeo, 1m21.939s, C3 - 41
    14. Gasly, AlphaTauri, 1m22.469s, C4 - 40
    15. Mazepin, Haas, 1m26.229s, C3 - 9
    16. Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1m30.433s, C3 - 10
  • Summary
    -Hamilton tops final day of the Barcelona F1 shakedown test
    -Russell led disrupted morning session hit by five red flags: Alonso (hydraulics), Gasly (crash), Zhou x2 (crash, mechanical), Vettel (car fire)
    -Circuit soaked with water tankers during lunch break for Pirelli wet tyre test, dry tyre running resumes after 90 minutes

Live Text

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Lights green
Goooooood morning Barcelona! Who is ready for the last day of the F1 shakedown test? Action gets going in a little over 15 minutes.

Here’s the driver line-up for today:

Mercedes: Russell/Hamilton
Red Bull: Verstappen/Perez
Ferrari: Leclerc/Sainz
McLaren: Norris/Ricciardo
Alpine: Alonso/Ocon
AlphaTauri: Gasly/Tsunoda
Aston Martin: Vettel/Stroll
Williams: Latifi/Albon
Alfa Romeo: Zhou/Bottas
Haas: Mazepin/Schumacher

The biggest news overnight came from Haas who dropped Uralkali Russian branding for final day of F1 testing amid Russian forces invading of Ukraine. Here's the latest: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/haas-to-drop-uralkali-branding-for-final-day-of-f1-testing/8466091/

Sun
Weather update: It's cloudy and cold. The risk of rain is 20% and with the cloud cover it is a chilly 7.6oC with a track temperature barely into double figures.

What that basically means is conditions aren't terrible for track running but will be very unrepresentative compared to what the F1 teams will face during the season.

Green flag
But anyway, off we go and Verstappen heads out immediately for Red Bull.
Vettel and Russell join Verstappen on track for the early running. Quick reminder that we have four hours of running this morning before a one-hour lunch break, then another four hours until the finish and home time.
Zhou, Gasly, Alonso and Leclerc the next to head out for their first laps of the day leaving just Mazepin, Norris and Latifi left to emerge.
An array of aero rakes are on show, with AlphaTauri leading the stakes with the biggest attachment. But it isn't size that counts, it is what you do with it.
Mazepin, in the all-white Haas, is out on the track along with Norris and Albon (not Latifi is previously stated - sorry) so all 10 F1 cars have been out in the first 10 minutes.
 
Photo

Red Bull must have got that aero rake from the BBQ and Grill section at its local B&Q.

Red Bull Racing RB18 rear detail with sensor

Red Bull Racing RB18 rear detail with sensor

Photo by: Giorgio Piola

Stopwatch
Quick check on the opening lap times sees Leclerc lead the way with a 1m23.589s for Ferrari. Not much to read into that given a) it is early b) no teams are fully pushing performance yet c) Leclerc got into the 1m19s yesterday.
Photo

Here's a first look at the revised Haas livery minus the Russia flag colours and Uralkali branding, which has also disappeared from the team garages and trucks.

 

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Stopwatch
Verstappen takes over from Leclerc at the top of the times with a 1m22.653s, as he begins his first extended run of the morning. Red Bull do have a bit of mileage to catch up on after Perez's unscheduled stop yesterday and the world champion is taking up the task.
Stopwatch
Alonso is now fastest for Alpine with a 1m21.242s on the C3 tyres.

Into the thick of the long run action now, with Alonso in particular metronomic with a series of laps all in the high 1m22s to low 1m23s. Norris has popped up to second on the times with a 1m21.865s.

Red flag
Red flag! We have our first stoppage of the day!
It is Alonso in the Alpine that has triggered the red flag with all other cars already back in the pitlane.
It is not clear yet what the exact cause of Alonso's stop is but he's out of the car which has come to a halt in the final sector.

Images are emerging of a very smoky Alpine just before Alonso pulled over on the track. The track action will resume at 10:05 local time - so in five minutes.

Green flag
Off we go again as the Alpine is delivered back to the team garage.
Photo

Live proof of Alonso's car on its way to the Alpine garage from Autosport F1 reporter Luke Smith. No deep-dive analysis on this one just yet, pretty hard to do with those huge covers.

 

Photo by: Luke Smith

Stopwatch
Verstappen goes quickest with a 1m21.192s just after Albon, Mazepin and Zhou went three-wide down the main straight. It is all happening now!
Photo

What's the Spanish for "this looks an expensive job"?

 

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Stopwatch
Meanwhile Verstappen has gone quicker again, this time a 1m20.683s, on the C3 tyres.
After that red flag and then a flurry of small improvements at the restart, the teams and lap times have settled back down to the long run programmes. Verstappen leads both the timesheet and lap count totals as he continues to circulate on the C3s.
Russell heads out for Mercedes on the C3s to give Verstappen and Albon some company.
Quote

Alpine on Alonso's smoky stop:

"Fernando asked to stop the car on track after the car lost pressure in the final sector. It’s been recovered to the garage where we’ll investigate the issue further."

Stopwatch
Russell makes an instant lap time improvement to move up to second with a 1m21.125s to go half a second off Verstappen's leading effort.
Stopwatch
Russell makes another improvement with a 1m20.767s to move within one tenth of Verstappen. This is the first extended period of time both Red Bull and Mercedes have been at the top of the times in this test - it's as if nothing has changed.
Another three-wide flyby, this time Zhou, Albon and Russell, who were definitely able to follow each other closely through the final sector.
Stopwatch
Norris, timesheet-topper on Day 1, has joined the 1m20s gang to go third quickest for McLaren.
Zhou on the C2s is chipping away at his personal best lap times but remains ninth on the overall, focusing on mileage which Alfa Romeo is lacking after a slow start to the test due to various issues.
Luke Smith
Luke Smith

"Good to see Zhou getting on with his programme in the Alfa after the team's stunted start to testing. He said yesterday that he felt he was driving at around "90%" already, but felt confident there was plenty more to come from both himself and the car. Lots of ground still to be made up for the team though..."

Breaking news

Albon: 2022 F1 cars require “finesse” when driven on limit

Here's the full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/albon-2022-f1-cars-require-finesse-when-driven-on-limit/8482199/
Stopwatch
Back on track and Verstappen goes quicker again on the C3s with a 1m19.765s - a full second faster than nearest rival Russell.
There's been a driver change at Williams, Latifi is in the car now taking over from Albon. Given our earlier confusion of which driver was meant to be in the car first, Williams clearly want to keep us on our toes.

By: Haydn Cobb

Published: