After a quiet day of testing on Wednesday, the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya today hosted the second test session of the 2022 pre-season in which, like at the end of the first four hours of the previous day, Ferrari looked like it would finish in front. However, the first serious setback changed everything in the final minutes.
In general, they have been uneventful tests, but Sergio Pérez and Red Bull suffered the first with less than an hour left before the break. The Mexican had to stop the RB18 at Turn 13 after a gearbox problem, causing the first red flag of 2022, and the session was stopped. The stewards and mechanics of Red Bull had to come to the rescue of a car that those of the energy drinks were in charge of hiding well under the canvas.
The activity would resume with a green flag with 15 minutes to go, but that was the end of the session for Pérez, who will return to the track this afternoon after having fixed his gearbox problems by Red Bull. The one from Guadalajara, Mexico, did not make its first timed lap until almost an hour and a half from the start, although it was approaching 40 laps (it made 38) when it suffered the breakdown. His time, a 1:22.412 with C2 tires (hard), left him eighth.
At that time, with the C3 tire (the medium one), Carlos Sainz was the fastest with a time of 1:20.546, which left his closest rival almost half a second behind. However, in the closing minutes, Daniel Ricciardo managed to step up and stop the clock in 1m20.355s, also on C3 tyres. The Australian from McLaren, who was already the fastest on Wednesday, had emulated his teammate Lando Norris by being the first to go out on the track when the traffic lights came on at nine in the morning at the Catalan circuit.
But beyond the speed of one lap, all the teams look for the highest possible mileage, and at Ferrari they can celebrate the reliability of their car, which has been the one that has accumulated the most kilometers in the morning session, where Sainz completed 71 laps ( for Ricciardo’s 65). The man from Madrid and his team were the second to go out on the track and it didn’t take long for them to put aside the aerodynamic grids that all cars have in the first moments to start focusing on the performance of the F1-75.
Like Sainz and Leclerc, the other five drivers in the top 7 used the soft tyre, C3, to achieve their best time. There a Valtteri Bottas slipped in at the end who suffered another complicated morning for Alfa Romeo, who after the problems on Wednesday (they only did 32 laps) were again the most inactive, with 22.
Third position went to Pierre Gasly, who after seeing how his teammate Yuki Tsunoda completed the first day, is the only rider on track today with AlphaTauri. The Frenchman also took advantage of a green-flag run at the end to set his personal best of 1m20.764s.
Fourth was Albon in the Williams, leaving the curious situation that the fastest four were former junior Red Bull drivers… but none are now in a Red Bull. Albon spent the first hour running a series of installation laps and well below pace aero tests, before riding C3 at the start of the second hour and moving up the positions.
Fifth was Stroll in the Aston Martin and sixth was Mick Schumacher who showed that Haas has found reliability (66 laps in the morning, compared to 42 all Wednesday) after a car floor problem on Wednesday. The German spun just before the slow final chicane at the start of the final hour.
As for the screens, this time there were no errors to put another driver who was not lapping, but there was a moment of confusion when Bottas was attributed a 1:04, probably for having missed a good part of the track.
And if at the moment Red Bull does not show its cards and does not appear for the first positions, Mercedes does not seem very concerned about shining either. Hamilton also spent the first hour in the box, and although he exceeded 40 laps he finished, with hard C2 tires and a 1:22.562, penultimate. In addition, he was one of the few that did not come out after the red flag.
He only surpassed Esteban Ocon who enjoyed more than 66 laps (only Sainz gave more) and whose Alpine was running C2 tires on his best fastest lap. The French team continued to experiment with the gills of their car, as we saw on Wednesday.
The session resumes at 2:00 p.m., with another four hours to complete the second day. Checo Pérez will continue at Red Bull, but Carlos Sainz will leave his Ferrari to Charles Leclerc, as will Hamilton with George Russell at Mercedes, Ricciardo with Lando Norris at McLaren F1, Albon with Nicholas Latifi at Williams, Mick Schumacher with Nikita Mazepin in the Haas or Lance Stroll with Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin. Ocon will remain at Alpine.
Times of the tests of the F1 2022 in Barcelona – Morning of the day 2
Times of the tests of the F1 2022 in Barcelona – Morning of the day 2| Pilot | Equipment | laps | Times (Tires) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Daniel Ricciardo |
McLaren | 65 | 1’20″355  |
| two |  Carlos Sainz |
ferrari | 71 | 1’20″546 |
| 3 |  Pierre Gasly |
AlphaTauri | 62 | 1’20 “764 |
| 4 |  Alex Albon |
williams | 47 | 1’21″531 |
| 5 |  Lance Stroll |
Aston Martin | 55 | 1’21″920 |
| 6 |  Mick Schumacher |
Haas | 67 | 1’21″949 |
| 7 |  Valtteri Bottas |
Alfa Romeo | 22 | 1’22″288 |
| 8 |  Sergio Perez |
Red Bull | 38 | 1’22″412  |
| 9 |  Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes | 40 | 1’22″562 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon |
Alpine | 66 | 1’23″280 |
Enjoy with the photos of day 2 of test F1 2022 in Barcelona
Photo by: Carl Bingham/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
Photo by: Mark Sutton/Motorsport Images
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Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
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Photo by: Giorgio Piola
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Photo by: Giorgio Piola
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Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
Photo by: Giorgio Piola
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