In Barcelona, the lights in the pit lane turned green at 9:00 am for the final day of testing. Max Verstappen drove out early in his repaired Red Bull and was productive all morning. The new RB22 is working properly, which means Verstappen has completed 69 laps at the start of the lunch break. His best time was 1:18.5.
It is also important for Verstappen to have a good test day, as he has only completed 27 laps so far. The cause was Tuesday’s rainfall and Isack Hadjar’s crash, after which Red Bull had to wait for spare parts from the factory. As a result, Verstappen was only able to explore the circuit again on Friday.
Furthermore, Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari particularly stood out positively. The Scuderia seemed to focus on runs with less fuel for the first time. Leclerc came close to Mercedes’ times with his 1:16.6 on soft tires. George Russell has the fastest time of the week so far with a 1:16.4. Mercedes has already tested for three days and will therefore no longer appear in Barcelona on Friday.
Aston Martin certainly does, as they only started their program on Thursday after significant delays. Fernando Alonso took his place behind the wheel of the AMR26 for the first time and has completed 49 laps so far. Behind Leclerc we find Oscar Piastri in second place. The afternoon session starts at 2:00 PM.
