Antonio Giovinazzi, 96 laps and programme completed: "Driving the Ferrari is always special"

Antonio Giovinazzi hasn’t had much running in an F1 challenger this year, but he won’t forget the opening day of Hungary testing in a hurry, after clocking the quickest time for Ferrari to top the timesheet.

As the two-day mid-season test kicked off on Tuesday, the Italian finished an impressive 2.5s ahead of his nearest rival – Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson – to demonstrate the Prancing Horse’s pace this year. In doing so, he produced the fastest lap ever set at the Hungaroring – a mighty 1m 15.648s, which is half a second quicker than anything seen last weekend.

Brendon Hartley was third on the timesheet for Toro Rosso, the Kiwi clocking up the most laps of the day and finishing less than a tenth ahead of Lando Norris. The McLaren junior was one of the more active drivers in the latter stages of the session, after unexpected rain forced the drivers to withdraw to their garages.

Antonio Giovinazzi could have done with just a few more laps, partly to round it up to a hundred, or even 99, which is his favourite number and the one he had on the SF71H today, or maybe just because “driving a Ferrari is always special.” His running was cut short by a sudden and heavy downpour just as the team was preparing to send him out for his final run. However, on this first day of testing at the Hungaroring, the programme was successfully completed and Antonio’s second “rookie day,” after the one in which he took part in Barcelona, ended with a best lap of 1’15”648, set on the Hypersoft tyres and his lap total was 96. Antonio also ran with the Medium, Soft and Supersoft compounds. Tomorrow, Kimi Raikkonen gets behind the wheel for the final day.

“I had tried the car in the Barcelona test rookie, and I must say it has improved dramatically.” – said Giovinazzi – “It’s a big step, last time was in May and now we’re in the end of July. It was a big step, it’s really good to see this improvement from the car. It showed the team and drivers are doing a fantastic job to improve the car. My main programme, we did a few long runs in the morning and a quali run in the afternoon. The rain was coming and we delayed the end of the programme with a lot of long runs. It was a good day, positive for me and for the team and this is really important. he goal was to do well and try to confirm that you are up to the task. But I do not feel under pressure, it has been a positive test and I’m satisfied.” – he concluded.

The action resumes on Wednesday, with pace-setter Giovinazzi, who took part in first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday, replacing Ericsson as Sauber’s driver. Kimi Raikkonen and Robert Kubica are also among the familiar names set to take to the track for the final day of this test.