MADRID, 23 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
This Friday, the Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) was the fastest man in the last day of Formula 1 preseason testing, held in Bahrain, the last touchstone before the season begins, while the Dutchman Max Verstappen ( Red Bull) have scared their rivals with a devilish race pace.
Furthermore, the Aston Martin of Spanish Fernando Alonso, eighth, has shown that in long runs it can be in the fight with the Ferraris. For his part, Carlos Sainz from Madrid, who led the times during the morning, finished the day in eighth place.
The current world champion was the star of the final test session in Bahrain with a performance that is frightening ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season, which will be held next week on the same track. Despite not having set the best time of the day – he was fourth, 0.433 seconds behind Leclerc’s time -, his race pace was much higher than that of his rivals. The Dutchman was able to maintain a constant pace in the low 1.37s with both the C1 (hardest) and C3 (medium) compounds, something that has only been within his reach throughout the day.
Despite the great staging of ‘Mad Max’, the driver who finished at the top of the classification at the end of the day was Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver set the best time of the day stopping the clock at 1.30.322, yes, with the C5 (soft) compound. Furthermore, the pace of the Ferrari invites optimism, since in the race simulation carried out by the Monegasque driver he had similar times to Red Bull, although a couple of tenths below.
And if the sensations shown by the Italian team are good, those of Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin are also good. Although in the time table the Asturian was left out of the ‘Top 5’ of the classification, achieving the seventh best time, the performance of the AMR24 in long runs was very good. Alonso’s number 14 car did not suffer much degradation in the long runs, and he was especially good with the C1, with which he achieved a pace very similar to that of Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Thus, the car designed by Dan Fallows seems to meet the Asturian driver’s expectations for the start of the season, although it seems that it still lacks speed on one lap. Despite this, Alonso showed that in both the first and third sectors his times were very similar to those of Red Bull, with the Aston Martin even being superior in the first, painted purple on several occasions by the Spaniard.
For his part, Carlos Sainz continued with the good performance shown during Thursday’s day, in which he was the fastest, and was at the top of the time table throughout the morning. Sainz set the best time achieved during the first five hours of testing with the C3 compound, stopping the clock at 1.31.247. He finished ninth at the end of the day and confirms that the Ferrari is going very well and that his form is outstanding.
He was also at a high level in the race simulation with times very similar to those of Sergio Pérez, the Red Bull driver with whom he shared the track on Friday. Furthermore, the Spanish driver leaves the Bahrain tests with the satisfaction of having been the driver who achieved the fastest lap, thanks to the 1.29.921 achieved on Thursday.
As for Mercedes and McLaren, teams called to be alongside Ferrari and Aston Martin as alternatives to the dominance of Red Bull, their performances were also good. Especially encouraging was that of the German team; George Russell finished the day with the second best time, less than half a tenth behind Leclerc, and showed some of the potential that the W15 can achieve, especially fast in the last sector. For his part, Lewis Hamilton, who drove during the first four hours of testing, also placed his car among the three best times of the morning with a 1.31.999 with which he finished the day in 12th position.
On the other hand, McLaren went from more to less throughout the day and did not shine either on one lap or in long runs. A setback for Zac Brown’s team, which saw how Oscar Piastri, in seventh position, and Lando Norris, in fourteenth, did not meet expectations. Additionally, throughout the day they were seen performing many paraffin tests to better understand the flow of air in the MCL38.
Finally, the positive surprises of the preseason test were the Visa Cash App RB and Stake teams, which finished the day among the top five. In the case of the Red Bull ‘subsidiary’ team, Yuki Tsunoda set the fifth best time, while Guanyu Zhou finished in third position with his Stake, both with the whiter compound.
2024-02-23 17:12:03
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