Leclerc fastest for Ferrari at midday

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

The second day of testing at Circuit de Catalunya got off to a slow start as most teams teams were hestitant to do a lot of mileage early on in the day due to slippery conditions.

It was mostly Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari who lit up the track in the first hour. Close to 10:00, Giovinazzi became busy as well, as the team clearly gave him some track time to get used to his new car.

This meant that Giovinazzi has completed most mileage in the first hour, closely followed by Leclerc and Hamilton.

By then, Alexander Albon had caused an early red flag after spinning at Turn 4. No damage was done though, so the track was clear again in no time. Albon would continue to complete quite a bit of mileage in the morning session, but it didn't seem like he was running a stable STR14. Whethever he pushed too hard, or the tyres were cold, or the car's rear is unstable is unsure, but he was sliding unusually often.

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The competitive times were only to be seen later on when Leclerc upped the pace on the yellow marked C3 compound. It didn't take him long at all to go fastest, and with a laptime of 1m18.247s he came close to his team mate's time of Monday.

Mercedes once again didn't seem to bother with pace, instead letting Hamilton do a steady pace that saw him just 7th fastest. His best of 1m19.928s was the best by a Mercedes so far in the test, so there is progress.

15 minutes from the end of the session, Giovinazzi sat second on the timing sheet, but Haas's Kevin Magnussen still snuck ahead to go second fastest by using the white C2 compound. The Alfa Romeo driver on the other hand had been using the yellow C3 on his fastest attempt, just like Vettel had done.