Barcelona pre-season test kicks off as Leclerc tops the morning session

The 2021 Formula 1 Championship is taking form as the teams fielded their 2022 cars for the official Barcelona pre-season test, with Charles Leclerc setting the fastest lap in the morning session.

The first pre-season test of the 2022 Formula 1 season began on Wednesday morning in Barcelona, with all ten teams testing their new vehicles.

The teams were greeted by chilly but sunny conditions at the start of the three-day event at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, which F1 refers to as a lower key, pre-testing track session before the formal pre-season test in Bahrain.

Charles Leclerc set the early pace for Ferrari, posting a record of 1:21.718 on the C2 Hard compound tyre, half a second faster than Max Verstappen (also on C2 Hards), who debuted the’real’ RB18.

Red Bull was the point of attraction after their RB18 was spotted for the first time after launching a dummy car and discreet shakedown at Silverstone last week. The RB18 aroused eyebrows when it emerged from the garage, with a completely different design compared to the car at its official launch.

Over the opening hours of track action, Ferrari and Red Bull were the most productive teams, with Leclerc and Verstappen clocking 37 and 40 laps respectively, recording the longest distance covered by the new cars.

Lando Norris in the McLaren MCL36 was the third fastest, while the new Mercedes driver, George Russell finished fourth after his first runs in the all new W13.

Russell’s teammate, seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, inspected the pit lane to get an early look at what the competitors had been up to during the winter.

As the field gathers first data with their new cars, Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Nicholas Latifi (Williams), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), and Nikita Mazepin (Haas) set lap times in the morning session.

Robert Kubica, an Alfa Romeo reserve, was the least productive of the drivers in action, completing four laps without setting a time.

2022 F1 BARCELONA PRE-SEASON TESTING – DAY 1 – MORNING SESSION