F1 News
Leclerc goes faster than Hamilton on second Pirelli test day
- Cas van de Kleut
On Wednesday, Ferrari and McLaren completed a Pirelli tyre test in Barcelona. On Tuesday, Lewis Hamilton was faster than teammate Charles Leclerc, but this was not the case on the second and final day of testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Both Ferrari drivers were present on the second test day, but the McLaren team was not. Only Oscar Piastri was in action on behalf of McLaren. In total, the Australian drove 152 laps on his own. Both Leclerc and Hamilton drove fewer laps as they each completed 74 laps.
Leclerc goes faster than Hamilton
A total of exactly 300 laps were completed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. In these laps, Leclerc clocked the fastest lap. The Monegasque drove a 1:14.971. His teammate, Hamilton, who was faster than his teammate on Tuesday, went a little slower than the other Ferrari driver on Wednesday. The Briton drove a 1:16.759 as his fastest time. Piastri sits in between the two Ferrari drivers. The Australian clocked a time of 1:15.815. Pirelli mentioned that the times do not show significant differences between the drivers. Everyone was driving a different programme.
Isola thanks Formula One teams after test days
Pirelli Motorsport Director Mario Isola commented after the session that they got a lot out of the test at the tyre manufacturer: "It was a very useful session, particularly when it came to providing a comparison between the various different constructions for next season, as well as experimenting with some compounds from the harder end of the range".
He continued, "The Barcelona circuit is known as one of the most demanding for the tyres in terms of the energy exerted and degradation. Therefore, the information we have gathered over these two busy days will be very important for the future development of this generation of tyres. It’s a really demanding start to the year with four test sessions even before the season begins, and I want to thank all the teams that are working with us because we know how busy they are at the moment.”
This article was written in collaboration with Savannah Lenz.
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