Event: Pre-Season testing
Track: Catalunya Circuit

Feb.25 - The final day of 3 pre-season running from Barcelona started off with overcast and cooler temperatures, but no rain was seen yet.

Because of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, Haas decided to get rid of their 'Russian' F1 livery for this final day of testing.

Morning test session - 3rd day

Max Verstappen gets things underway for Red Bull on the final day in Barcelona, the Dutchman heading out for the final morning onto a decidedly chilly track. He hasn't driven since Day 1, and since then a raft of new parts have arrived at the Red Bull garages to test.

Report 3rd day of 2022 Pre-season testing

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in  Spain
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin AMR22

Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin and George Russell in the Mercedes have also both headed out right away. Pierre Gasly follows them sporting aero rakes on the AlphaTauri AT03. After ten minutes all cars had done their first laps.

There's just one rookie on the grid this season, Zhou Guanyu from China. He had to wait until yesterday afternoon to make his bow, but performed well - no obvious errors, and 71 laps to his name was a good return. He was back in the car this morning.

Lando Norris was also back in the car this morning for McLaren. He clocked the fastest lap time on the first day.

Less then one hour into the session smoke was coming out of Fernando Alonso's Alpine A522 and the Spanish driver was stranded near turn 13, which caused the first red flag of this final day of testing. The team later on confirm the issue was a problem with the sealing of the hydraulics system and it ended their testing. The French team only drove 12 laps today.

After the track was clear again Verstappen put in some faster laps and was just a tenth slower than Leclerc's fastest lap of yesterday. At the same time Haas told us on twitter the VF-22 has a suspected leak which they had to investigate.

Russell had completed the most laps around 11 o'clock this morning, with 46 and counting as he headed back out. He had been running the C3 medium compound tyre.

After 40 laps Gasly crashed the AT03 front in the second sector and a second red flag was out. He was ok and headed back to the garage. The crash also ended their testing. It took about 20 minutes before the track was given the green light again. It wasn't long before the third red flag was out, when Rookie Zhou beached the Alfa Romeo C42 after a spin.

At the end of the morning session Russell clocked the fastest lap time so far, with a 1:19.233 min. Not very much later the fourth red flag came out because the Aston Martin of Vettel was smoking due to an oil leak. The team wasn't able to fix the leak quickly and it ended their Barcelona testing. The British team did manage to add 48 laps to their total.

Afternoon test session - 3rd day

During the afternoon session on this third day there was a special wet weather test. In agreement with Pirelli the track will be a wet to also do a weather test so they can see their wet and intermediate tyres in action.

Ricciardo was the first to head out for McLaren on full wets. After 7 minutes he already swapped to intermediate tyres. A bit later Nicholas Latifi joined with the Williams on the same tyres.

Report 3rd day of 2022 Pre-season testing

Nicholas Latifi testing the Williams Racing FW44 in the wet on day 3, Friday 25th February 2022. Barcelona, Spain.

Hamilton and Perez took over the testing duties form their teammate this afternoon. Russell told during the lunch break that they are not fully happy with the balance of the W13, but we're here to learn and we've made some good experiments. We are happy with the direction they are heading.

It was also Bottas' turn to take over the wheel from Zhou to test the Alfa Romeo in the wet this afternoon. But because his teammate ran into some issues towards the end of the morning session. The Finn really hasn't had much lap time so far this week yet.

The Haas team also had to call it a day earlier than expected. A technical issue was keeping them busy for hours since this morning and at 15:30 the news got out they would not go out anymore. The American team only managed to drive 9 laps today.

There is some work to do for Haas and Alfa Romeo reliability wise. The other teams will need to sort out the porpoising issue. Which make the cars bounce like dolphin and hurts their top speed on the main-straight.

At the end of the day Hamilton and Perez pushed out some quicker laps and drove the fastest laps of this test on the C5 (softest) compound. In the end Hamilton was quickest with a 1:19.138 min.

Ferrari also had a good day as did Red Bull. The Bulls bounced back from their slight hiccup yesterday when they lost a lot of running, due to a gearbox problem. McLaren also had a trouble free day, and will be pleased with their mileage from this week.

Quickest Lap Times 3rd day of testing

PNoDriverTeamTime1st GapLaps
144Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:19,13894
263George RussellMercedes1:19,233+0,095s66
311Sergio PérezRed Bull1:19,556+0,418s74
433Max VerstappenRed Bull1:19,756+0,618s59
55Sebastian VettelAston Martin1:19,824+0,686s48
616Charles LeclercFerrari1:19,831+0,693s44
755Carlos SainzFerrari1:20,072+0,934s92
823Alex AlbonWilliams1:20,318+1,180s94
96Nicholas LatifiWilliams1:20,699+1,561s13
103Daniel RicciardoMcLaren1:20,790+1,652s86
114Lando NorrisMcLaren1:20,827+1,689s52
1214Fernando AlonsoAlpine1:21,242+2,104s12
1324Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo1:21,939+2,801s41
1410Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri1:22,469+3,331s40
159Nikita MazepinHaas1:26,229+7,091s9
1677Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo1:30,433+11,295s10

Overall best lap times per driver with tyre compounds 2022 Barcelona testing


Total Laps F1 Drivers 2022 Barcelona Test

Pos.F1 DriverDay 1Day 2Day 3Total LapsDistance (km)
1Charles Leclerc8079792381.108
2Carlos Sainz7371712151.001
3Daniel Ricciardo012686212987
4George Russell776666209973
5Alex Albon664794207964
6Max Verstappen147059206959
7Pierre Gasly014740187870
8Lewis Hamilton504094184857
9Zhou Guanyu637141175815
10Sebastian Vettel527448174810
11Lando Norris103052155722
12Sergio Pérez07874152708
13Nicholas Latifi666113140652
14Fernando Alonso127012139647
15Esteban Ocon01250125582
16Lance Stroll67550122568
17Yuki Tsunoda12100121563
18Mick Schumacher2366089414
19Nikita Mazepin2042971331
20Valtteri Bottas23212165303
21Robert Kubica900942
Total1.1671.1698593.19514.873

Total Laps F1 Teams 2022 Barcelona Test

Pos.F1 TeamDay 1Day 2Day 3Total LapsDistance (km)
1Ferrari1531501504532.109
2Mercedes1271061603931.829
3McLaren1031261383671.708
4Red Bull147781333581.666
5Williams1321081073471.615
6AlphaTauri121147403081.434
7Aston Martin119129482961.378
8Alpine127125122641.229
9Alfa Romeo9592622491.159
10Haas431089160745
Total1.1671.1698593.19514.873

✅ Check out the photos of the final day of 2022 Pre-Season F1 Testing in Barcelona »


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8 F1 Fan comments on “Report 3rd day of 2022 Pre-season testing

  1. shaunben

    well well, merc only fastest on soft tyre (c5) compared to red bull,ferarri and mclaren running c3 and c4 tyre compounds.takes some reading into.....

    Reply
      • ReallyOldRacer

        Shrop', we disagree on this one. Your comment is spot on, but there's a huge difference between lapping and racing. We'll see.

        BTW, I see in a different string that your taxi has arrived. lol

        Reply
        • shroppyfly

          agreed, it'll only count at the races, but have to say , promising start,if i could be bothered id look back at testing with VB v LH for the time differentials as for my Taxi, Mrs Jax is now doing the driving, time will tell whether she's anymore interesting than her hubby.

          Reply
  2. david kirkman

    Quote from article:

    'Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin and George Russell in the Williams have also both headed out right away. Pierre Gasly follows them sporting aero rakes on the AlphaTauri AT03. After ten minutes all cars had done their first laps.'

    Don't think George Russell was out in the Williams!!!

    Reply

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