Leclerc ahead, Gasly in heavy crash on penultimate day of testing

F1 Test, Barcelona, Circuit de Catalunya

Charles Leclerc's time of the morning session remained the best time of the day, as the afternoon was mostly about long runs. The flow of these continuous runs was however interrupted by three red flags.

The first red flag came from Pierre Gasly, who heavily crashed his Red Bull RB15 at Turn 9. Around 90 minutes into the afternoon session, the Frenchman lost control of his car and badly damaged the RB15 as he hit the barriers, having veered over the relatively short gravel trap.

With the front and rear seriously damaged, Red Bull had no choice but to sit out the remainder of the session. Gasly was sent to the medical center and soon released as he was unharmed.

Gasly has already scratched the barriers on the first day of pre-season winter testing as well.

When 20 minutes later, the track was green again, Lance Stroll was the first to complete 100 laps. It was the first time the Racing Point RP19 managed to do so in winter testing, and soon enough, Stroll came to a halt with a technical failure, exactly at the same Turn 9.

Another 50 minutes later, in the same corner, Charles Leclerc also came to a halt after 138 trouble-free laps with the Ferrari SF90.

On the mileage charts, Mercedes was top again, totaling 182 laps among its two drivers. Renault's duo ended up with 138.

Worse off was Haas, as their driver duo only completed 69 laps, mostly due to an exhaust problem that the team found on their VF-19 just after lunch.

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