F1 News
Test 2 - Day 1 Morning Recap: Kubica goes quickest whilst Red Bull have problems
- Bobby Vincent
Robert Kubica was quickest for Alfa Romeo Racing, as Red Bull Racing spent the majority of Wednesday morning in the garage after suffering suspension issues on Alex Albon's RB16, with their sister-team Alpha Tauri also having problems with their machines.
It has been somewhat of a nightmare morning for Red Bull, with Albon driving just the one installation lap around the circuit, and has spent most of the rest of the morning in the garage.
The problem was initially thought to be something with the Honda engine, but it has since been revealed that it was actually a suspension issue, and he returned to the track with an hour left of the morning session.
Likewise, their sister-team, Alpha Tauri, also had issues - with a broken pipe that was leaking - but coincidentally, the two sides, who are both running with Honda engines, returned to track at exactly the same time.
Williams had some problems as well, with the morning proving to be a particularly tough session for some of the F1 teams. Nicholas Latifi was forced to stop his car mid-lap, causing a red flag. It looked like another engine issue for the British team, similar to what they were suffering with in the first test last week.
Lewis Hamilton was in the lead with an hour to go, setting a 1:17.753, with Lance Stroll of Racing Point just 0.034s behind the six-time champion, with Sebastian Vettel in third.
However, Kubica went quickest with just over 30 minutes of the session remaining - setting a 1:16.942 - almost a second quicker than Hamilton's previous best time of the morning.
Albon went second-quickest with about 15 minutes of the session remaining, going 0.608s behind Kubica and ahead of Hamilton by 0.012s, with his first proper meaningful lap of the morning.
Pierre Gasly had a heavily interrupted morning following the issues to his Alpha Tauri, but he managed to set a very good lap with just over 10 minutes remaining and moved up to P4 as a result, just under a second behind Kubica.
Timesheet
1. Robert Kubica - Alfa Romeo Racing: 1:16.942
2. Pierre Gasly - Scuderia Alpha Tauri: 1:17.540
3. Alexander Albon - Red Bull Racing: 1:17.550
4. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG F1: 1:17.562
5. Lance Stroll - Racing Point: 1:17.787
6. Sebastian Vettel - Scuderia Ferrari: 1:18.113
7. Daniel Ricciardo - Renault F1 Team: 1:18.214
8. Carlos Sainz Jr - McLaren F1: 1:18.221
9. Nicholas Latifi - Williams Racing: 1:18.300
10. Romain Grosjean - Haas F1 Team: 1:18.670