In an incident filled day with two red flags being brought out after separate incidents caused by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Haas’s Nikita Mazepin, Ferrari F1-75 driver Charles Leclerc ended the day on top of the timing sheets instilling hope with the Tifosi for a title challenge in the 2022 season.
Leclerc returned to the top spot in his Ferrari F1-75 after being ousted by Lando Norris in the afternoon session of day 1 while completing 79 laps behind the wheel of his Ferrari F1-75. The Monagesque snatched the top spot in the closing moments of the day from Frenchman Pierre Gasly who was followed by McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo. The lovable Australian driver got to grips with his 2022 companion for the first time today and seemed to be far more comfortable with its characteristics than any McLaren he has driven before it.
Gasly spent the entire day behind the wheel passing the start/finish line on 147 occasions; this equates to two full race distances! Esteban Ocon, Sergio Perez and Guanyu Zhou were the remaining drivers who got to grips with their new machinery today. Once again, the McLaren and Ferrari are putting up a strong showing which means the two stalwart teams could emulate bygone seasons from the fabled 90’s era.
Mercedes driver George Russell lined fourth position in the timing sheets while teammate Hamilton had an anonymous day finishing last accumulating 40 laps worth of data for the Brackley based team.
A surprise performance by Haas’s Nikita Mazepin put the usual backmarker team into eight fastest on the day despite fans calling for a boycott against the son of Russian oligarch Dmitry Mazepin. This comes after Russia declared war on Ukraine and promptly invaded the bordering nation.
The 22 year old Russian driver has downplayed the conflict and remains confident the scheduled Russian GP on the 25th of September will go ahead as planned. If this is the case, it would be ironic for the racing series to continue using the #weraceasone mantra as Sebastian Vettel became the first to speak out on the atrocities in a press conference stating that he will not race in Russia. Haas has since stated that the VF-22 car will run without Uralkali sponsorship logos and Russian branding for the final day of testing. It may be wishful thinking but the FIA should be interested to know that Kyalami can avail itself on that very same weekend.
In more lighthearted news, Bernd Mayländer and local driver Alan van der Merwe will be using the Aston Martin Safety Car and Medical Car at 12 races for the 2022 season. It is unknown which races will feature the British racing green duo as of yet. Today will be the last day of testing before the teams depart Spain and prepare to head to Bahrain for the official pre-season test but can the Ferrari F1-75 continue its strong initial showing?
