F1 tests in Barcelona: Ricciardo hides Leclerc the last morning

Daniel Ricciardo dominated the first session of the last day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Barcelona, ​​marking the first time that Renault’s power has been the fastest this winter.

The Renault driver came out late with a new set of C5 tires in a burst of time laps, and pulled up time with the second best test time of 1m16.276s.

The track turned out to be quite busy when the pit lane opened at 9 a.m. local time, with most of them preparing to start long races.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz led the way after opening time with a 1m17.255s on C2s, before a switch to C3s shortly after the second hour led him to shoot in 1m16.822s to deviate a second time from the field.

Daniil Kvyat of AlphaTauri reduced his advantage to 0.536 seconds soon after, but Sainz quickly found a marginal gain to improve at 1m16.820s.

Sainz was finally eliminated by Sergio Perez of Racing Point on a C3 time attack at the start of the third hour, taking first place with a 1m16.658s.

After teammate Sebastian Vettel placed Ferrari at the top of the timesheets for the first time this winter Thursday, Charles Leclerc resumed the SF1000 for the last day of racing.

Focusing on recording lap pieces on a moderate fuel charge, Leclerc went for a time attack and shot the Ferrari to the top of the stack on C5 with a 1m16.457s.

He improved fifteen minutes later to a 1m16.360s, which was quickly threatened by Mercedes by Lewis Hamilton.

The world champion lost racing on Thursday when the engine of his W11 stopped due to an oil pressure anomaly, and left early to continue the long races on C3 rubber which he had to cut. short.

Hamilton went out for another race in C5 to try to usurp Leclerc, but ended up missing 0.050 s.

He completed the most laps of the first session with 90.

At the same time, Ricciardo began to light up the timing screens on his lap, and hung him up to lead the session by 0.084 seconds from Leclerc and Hamilton.

Perez kept Racing Point in fourth place ahead of Sainz, while George Russell of Williams completed the first six.

It was over an hour after the session started before Russell did timed laps while performing aerodynamic tests for Williams – who introduced a new rear spoiler.

Russell, who will stay in the car this afternoon, led Kvyat, Romain Grosjean de Haas – who had a minor at turn 7 at one point – and Kimi Raikkonen of Alfa Romeo, who spun out of the chicane early Turn 14/15.

Alex Albon was the last of 10 riders with a 1m17.803s, and was lucky not to fail his Red Bull at turn 12 when he spun in the gravel at the start of the last hour.

Friday morning