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F1 testing: Leclerc tops Thursday morning, betters best testing lap

Ferrari bounced back as Charles Leclerc topped the morning session of the penultimate day of 2019 Formula 1 pre-season testing at Barcelona, as teams largely focused on performance runs.

Leclerc had already attracted attention before setting the fastest time when he shot to third with an impressive-looking lap on the harder C2 compound, while his rivals ran the red-walled C4 and C5 tyres.

His 1m17.253s effort was good enough for third at the time, before he used the C4 tyre to lap in 1m16.949 and go second.

Leclerc then moved to the top spot with a 1m16.658s effort on the C5 compound, despite his lap tailing off slightly in the final sector.

He the improved the fastest time twice more, first by three tenths, and then ending up with a best lap of 1m16.231s in the final minutes, which is the quickest time seen in testing so far.

Leclerc deposed Alexander Albon from the top spot and the Ferrari driver's total of 54 laps was a welcome boost after Ferrari completed just one lap on Wednesday afternoon following Sebastian Vettel's crash.

Albon had previously been swapping fastest laps with Lando Norris of McLaren, which had set the pace on Tuesday and Wednesday, before finally edging ahead with the first 1m16s lap time of testing.

The Toro Rosso driver's eventual best time of 1m16.882s came on the C5 softest compound after gaining nine thousandths of a second on his old benchmark.

Norris did not respond to Albon's final time as McLaren subsequently focused on longer runs, which meant he ended the morning third with a time of 1m17.084s and 64 laps in the bag.

Red Bull moved away from its regular C3 use to allow Pierre Gasly to undertake performance runs on the C4 and C5 compounds following early efforts that included running with an aero rake attached.

His best time was just 0.007s down on Norris and was set mid-way through the session.

Nico Hulkenberg was fifth for Renault as his team measured its wing flex during the early running, and he also ran on the lesser-spotted C1 compound late on.

Racing Point once again struggled to rack up the laps with just 37 completed, the lowest total of the 10 teams.

But Lance Stroll's best time of 1m17.556s was good enough for sixth.

Antonio Giovinazzi took seventh ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, but the Alfa Romeo driver's morning was disrupted by his car stopping at pit entry inside the final hour.

Mercedes completed performance runs for the first time in testing during the early running before Hamilton's focus switched to long runs that showed impressive consistency.

He was shuffled down the order to eighth, with a best time of 1m18.097s, and completed the most laps with a total of 85.

George Russell had admitted earlier this week that Williams had not fully come to terms with the C4 and C5 tyre, but the rookie improved throughout the morning using those two compounds.

Inside the last 20 minutes of the morning, he was able to move off the foot of the time sheet with a 1m18.130s lap on the C5 tyre, after the FW42 spent the early running fitted with a noticeably large aero rake.

Like Mercedes, Haas also completed lengthy runs on the harder compounds and Kevin Magnussen ended the morning with the 10th-fastest time and 53 laps on the board.

Zdroj: autosport.com