Posted in: 20/05/2022 – 18:46Last updated: 20/05/2022 – 18:44
Montmelo (Spain) (AFP) – Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc of Monaco looked ready to try to prevent Red Bull’s Dutch champion Max Verstappen from winning a third successive race, by dominating both practice sessions for the Spanish Grand Prix in Formula One.
After a difficult start to the season and his withdrawal from two of the first three races due to mechanical problems in the Red Bull car, Verstappen came back strong following winning the last two races in the Italian Emilia-Romagna and Miami of America, which allowed him to reduce the difference that separates him from Leclerc to 19 points.
The Dutchman is now entering the fifth round in Catalonia with his eyes on continuing his awakening and achieving his fourth victory for the season and the third in a row for only the second time in the 24-year-old’s career following 2021 when he won the prizes of France, Austria and Styria (on the same circuit).
The Dutchman returns to a circuit that entered the history of the first category in 2016, when he became at 18 years and 228 days the youngest driver to win a world championship round.
But Leclerc, who won two races and finished second in two races as well, revealed his intention on Friday to finish both test sessions in the lead at the Montmelo circuit.
Leclerc scored the fastest time in the first free practice, ahead of his Spanish colleague Carlos Sainz by 0.079 seconds in a crowded round since its beginning, as the teams wanted to evaluate the performance of the updates they made to their cars.
Verstappen was better at first on the hard tyres, then the drivers switched to soft tyres, in heavy traffic, especially in the last section.
Leclerc succeeded in the end in recording the fastest time of 1:19.828 minutes on board the “F1-75”, the updated floor and rear wing.
Verstappen was affected by the congestion in the last section of his fast lap, to finish third, a third of a second behind Leclerc, while the British Mercedes driver George Russell, who was 0.762 seconds slower than Leclerc, went fourth.
Former world champion Fernando Alonso put the Alpine car in fifth place, ahead of seven-time world champion Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.
Leclerc repeated the scenario in the second session, at a time when the Mercedes team made great progress, with Russell coming second, in front of Hamilton, Sinis, Verstappen and Alonso, respectively.
Most drivers started the second session on medium-soft tyres, then the virtual safety car was activated following a malfunction in Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo car, which led to a stop at the side of the track.
Then the drivers returned to adopting the soft tires to simulate qualifying for Saturday, and Leclerc remained the best following recording 1:19.670 minutes, but things changed behind him with Russell and Hamilton in second and third places, a difference of one tenth and two tenths of a second respectively, which indicates that the updates made to ” W13″ has changed the reality experienced by the German team at the beginning of the new season.
The Mercedes team is still the most affected by the new technical regulations applied to cars this season, and has not yet been able to find a solution to the problem of rebounds on the track.
Nevertheless, the Austrian team manager, Toto Wolff, revealed that the holders of the constructors’ titles will not make drastic changes to the design of the “W13″ this week, but following Barcelona, ”we have to look in the mirror and ask: Did we make a mistake?”
Ranking of the top five in the first free round:
Charles Leclerc (Monaco/Ferrari) 1:19.828 (27 laps)
Carlos Sainz (Spain/Ferrari) 1:19.907 (27)
Max Verstappen (Netherlands/Red Bull) 1:20.164 (28)
George Russell (GB/Mercedes) 1:20.590 (28)
Fernando Alonso (Spain/Alpine) 1:20.768 (24)
Ranking of the top five in the second free round:
Charles Leclerc (Monaco/Ferrari) 1:19.670 (29 laps)
George Russell (GB/Mercedes) 1:19.787 (27)
Lewis Hamilton (GB/Mercedes) 1:19.874 (26)
Carlos Sainz (Spain/Ferrari) 1:19.990 (31)
Max Verstappen (Netherlands/Red Bull) 1:20.006 (27)
© 2022 AFP
