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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.

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Matt Kew
Matt Kew

Trackside update

"Vettel appears to have suffered an engine issue there. There was a puff of smoke from the rear and he was fighting hard to keep the car pointing in a straight line into Turn 10 as the back axle tried to lock on him. He kept it together before pulling up and aiding the marshals with extinguishing the fire."
The timing screen confirms the session will not be resumed. That's lunch. After two red flags across two days we've had five in four hours.
Photo

Bit of an F1 BBQ this morning with the second serious car fire on track. Thankfully all OK, as Vettel helps get the situation under control.

 

Photo by: Alex Kalinauckas

Alex Kalinauckas
Alex Kalinauckas

Trackside update

"Vettel has been thoroughly dousing his car in extinguisher and directing the marshals for more. A bizarre screaming noise came from the car at one point as they covered it in extinguisher. It smells like an electrical fire."

Alex Kalinauckas
Alex Kalinauckas

Trackside update

“The marshals are blowing the extinguisher substance off the track now and the Aston Martin car is on the truck, with Vettel also heading back to the paddock.”

Breaking news
While this has all been going on F1 has announced the Russian GP is off this year following the Ukraine invasion. Full story to follow.
Breaking news

Russell tops red-flagged final morning at Barcelona F1 test

Here's the full round-up on a busy morning: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/2022-f1-barcelona-test-russell-tops-red-flagged-final-morning/8486923/
Breaking news

F1 calls off Russian Grand Prix following Ukraine invasion

And here's the latest on the Russian GP: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-calls-off-russian-grand-prix-following-ukraine-invasion/8487296/
Rain
The track is now being super soaked by several water tankers in preparation for this afternoon's wet tyre test.
Photo

This is how you soak a dry track without sprinklers: Get several water tankers emptying hundreds of gallons of water at slow speeds for an hour. The same plan was used in 2018 during pre-season testing but the track dried out after an hour.

 

Photo by: Alex Kalinauckas

Photo

Fireman Seb

Vettel was the first to leap into action earlier when his car caught fire and caused the morning session to finish prematurely.

 

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Here's who is on driving duties for the final afternoon of the Barcelona F1 test:

Mercedes: Hamilton
Red Bull: Perez
Ferrari: Sainz
McLaren: Ricciardo
AlphaTauri: Tsunoda
Aston Martin: Stroll
Williams: Albon/Latifi
Alfa Romeo: Bottas

Alpine withdrawn from the remainder of the test after a car fire.

The water tankers have entered the pits so the track soaking process is complete. It doesn't look that wet but we'll find in a few minutes when the afternoon session begins.
Green flag
Worth pointing out the water tankers didn't soak the pitlane so the drivers will need to take care coming out of the pits on the full wets. Here we go!
Daniel Ricciardo is first to go out on track. One presumes the wet tyres, which naturally doesn't have a "C" designation. The upside is, it's SO much easier to see what they are from the window.

It is also time to hand over to the marvellous Jake Boxall-Legge to take you through the afternoon session. I'm off to find some tapas.

'Tis the full wet for Mr. Ricciardo, who's producing some distinct rooster tails along the straight. With the new aero, the spray should be very 'up-washy'...
Sun
Ricciardo quickly zips into the pits and returns to conduct some wet running, albeit this time on the intermediate tyres. Pirelli wanted to test the crossover point between wets and inters this afternoon, but the track's maybe dried too quickly...
Ricciardo goes two seconds quicker than he did on wets, so it looks fine for inters. Latifi also heads out.
A 1m44.031s lap last time around for Ricciardo, who finds another 1.8s on his time again, before clocking in a 1m42.814s on his next tour. Latifi's also on inters, so very limited testing for wet tyres.
Photo
Given the red flags and the handful of laps from two cars in the afternoon, arguably most of the post-12pm running came from these lads: 

 

Latifi gets his intermediate time down to a 1m44.087s, as Hamilton leaves the garage and begins to explore the damp track. Ricciardo did a drive-thru in the pits, but has also returned to the circuit.
Latifi then out-does Ricciardo's time on inters, setting a 1m42.638s - still over 20s slower than his morning lap. The spray is reducing much more with each lap, although a dry line has yet to properly form.
Breaking news

By way of a reminder, here's why Alpine won't appear in this afternoon's session - following issues for Fernando Alonso earlier on:

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/alpine-forced-to-end-barcelona-f1-testing-early-after-car-fire/8487041/

Stopwatch
Perez and Sainz have both now taken to the circuit, the latter on the full wet tyre. Ricciardo has posted a 1m40.982s on the intermediate now - Sainz logs a 1m42.136s on the wets.
Ricciardo, Perez and Sainz flash by in quick succession on their following tour, Sainz setting a 1m41.808s while sitting in Perez's slipstream. Hamilton meanwhile comes into his pit box, and takes on a fresh set of inters.
It's a 1m40.146s for Ricciardo now, as Perez sets his first fully recorded laptime of the day - a 1m48.695s.
Damp-niel Ricciardo

 

Ricciardo and Hamilton are now up in the 1m39s on the inters - Hamilton with a 1m39.908s, Ricciardo with a 1m39.361s.
There's a 1m38.914s for Ricciardo now, and a 1m39.151s for Hamilton. The back part of the main straight is starting to look visibly drier, but the spray re-engages once the cars start to go downhill.
Hamilton's next to join the 1m38s party on intermediates. Meanwhile, Williams appears to have enacted a driver switch, with Albon now on the road for the damp part of the session.
Stopwatch
It's a 1m37.768s for Albon, which appears to be the best time of the afternoon thus far. We're yet to see Stroll, Tsunoda, Schumacher and Bottas this afternoon - we won't see Ocon after Alpine's troubles in the morning.
Stopwatch
Sainz now posts a 1m36.363s on his latest lap - now on intermediates. He follows that up with a 1m36.477s, finding more time out there. The spray on the main straight is basically gone now, so we're fast approaching slicks time...
Albon holds the fastest inter time for all of five seconds, posting a 1m36.147s - but Sainz punches in a 1m35.944s to deny him anything more than an iota of pleasure.
It's now a 1m35.226s for Sainz as the circuit begins to dry even more, and he's finding more personal bests as he begins his next lap.
Perez now gets into intermediate 1m35s country, posting a 1m35.774s lap. He sits 13th in the overall times of the day, below Sainz in 12th.
Perez pumps in a 1m34.691s to shuffle above Sainz in the order - the fastest time on intermediates thus far.

By: Haydn Cobb

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