Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo headed the times at the end of Thursday morning’s running at the Circuit de Catalunya. The Racing Point and Renault drivers set the best times of the test so far for their respective teams. Perez’s 1’17.347 puts the RP20 fractionally further ahead of the time achieved by its predecessor in last year’s pre-season test.
Lewis Hamilton was the busiest driver in his Mercedes, completing more laps than Perez and Ricciardo combined. But it was a technical innovation on his W11 which caught the attention of the team’s rivals.
Onboard video revealed Hamilton moving his steering wheel towards himself at the beginning of some straights and away again as he approached breaking zones, prompting speculation Mercedes have some novel system on their car.
Alfa Romeo Racing Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen completed 65 laps at the Circuit de Catalunya in the morning sessions, with aero tests in the first part of the session and several race simulations in the second part. Kimi’s best lap was a 1:18.508, although the lap times are less important at this early stage of testing.
The afternoon session continues at 14.00h.
LUNCHTIME TIMESHEET
- Sergio Perez, Racing Point, 48 laps, 1:17.347
- Daniel Ricciardo, Renault, 41 laps, +0.402
- Alex Albon, Red Bull, 59 laps, +0.808
- Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, 76 laps, +0.818
- George Russell, Williams, 71 laps, +0.919
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 49 laps, +0.988
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 106 laps, +1.040
- Romain Grosjean, Haas, 87 laps, +1.149
- Kimi Raikkonen, Alfa Romeo, 65 laps, +1.161
- Lando Norris, McLaren, 48 laps, +1.190
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