The final day of pre-season testing in Formula 1 has arrived and Australian Oscar Piastri has already overcome an early crash in the opening session.
Piastri became the first test driver to spin out after briefly losing control at Turn 10, doing the full 360 before driving again as if nothing had happened.
It was an impressive rebound from the Australian rookie, who had moved up to third and was otherwise putting together a good lap before turning.
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“He’s going to lose it and we didn’t see much of that in the test going down the hill to 10 but luckily there’s parking worth replaying there,” said one commentator. Sky Sports.
“It brings it together, decisively pushes it away from the barrier and that’s about one of the only incidents we’ve seen in three days where a driver has to catch up and we were on board when that happened.
“Our first tour in three days, that’s crazy, isn’t it?”
Another commenter added: “He’s over the top, just has to slow it down and it’s bumpy up there.”
“He goes over bumps there and McLaren doesn’t ride it very well and the rear end blows off in an instant. He did well to get his bearings but it was just bumps. This circuit, the bumps overall are a little bit worse than last year.”
Oscar Piastri “So Much to Learn” | 01:03
There were more problems for McLaren later in testing as Piastri had to pull into the garage after 25 laps as the team worked to fix what they described as a “minor issue” with the front ailerons.
“The team is currently carrying out some temporary strengthening work on the front wings to ensure we can complete today’s run,” McLaren said. Sky Sports in the current situation.
“It’s a very minor problem that will be permanently fixed for the Grand Prix next weekend.”
Piastri only managed 44 laps in the first session, nine laps short of Alex Albon who had the least second-place finish with 53 laps and a best time of 1.33.655.
Elsewhere, an element of intrigue surrounding Mercedes after a sensational kiss from Toto Wolff – seems to have really rang out.
It was a challenging second day of testing for Mercedes, with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton dropping to 13th and 15th respectively.
A hydraulic failure forced Russell to stop on the 109th lap for Mercedes, he failed to come back and then the team could struggle to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari for victory in the first race of the season.
Despite telling Wolff, the boss of Mercedes Sky Sports They were “hiding” their true pace from competitors.
“It’s very difficult to judge [this] When asked if the gap between his team and Red Bull and Ferrari was greater than before.
“Everyone is playing with fuel loads and it’s a little bit [of] It hides in the engine modes, so you can’t really judge – we’re still hiding a little bit.”
Oscar Piastri “So Much to Learn” | 01:03
Then in the first session of the day George Russell set Mercedes’ best test time with a 1.31.707 to lead the timesheet.
It didn’t last long though as Charles Leclerc finished first in a group of C4s after posting a time of 1.31.164 to go 0.3 seconds faster than Russell.
Leclerc only improved shortly after with the fastest time of the week (1.31.024).
The Ferrari driver would finish fastest of the morning session while it was a promising result for Mercedes too as Russell put the hydraulics issue behind him.
This came after Anthony Davidson said Sky Sports The coverage is that he has a “suspicious suspicion” that the Ferrari is “much faster” than has been shown so far.
“I think Ferrari is hiding something,” he added.
First session final schedule
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 1.31.024, 67 laps
George Russell (Mercedes) – 1.31.442, 83 laps
Felipe Drugovic (Aston Martin) – 1.32.075, 77 laps
Sergio Perez (Red Bull) – 1.32.459, 69 laps
Pierre Gasly (Alpine) – 1.32.762, 56 laps
Alex Albon (Williams) – 1.32.793, 53 laps
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) – 1.33.329, 77 laps
Oscar Piastri (McLaren) – 1.33.655, 44 laps
Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) – 1.36.854, 72 laps
Nic de Vries (AlphaTauri) – 1.38.244, 87 laps
The third day test driver schedule
Saturday session 1: Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), George Russell (Mercedes), Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Felipe Drugovic (Aston Martin), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) Nic de Vries (Alpha Tauri) and Alex Albon (Williams)
Saturday session 2: Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Lando Norris (McLaren), Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Kevin Magnussen (Haas) Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) and Alex Albon (Williams)
Follow all the procedures from the last day of the test below! Can’t you see it? click here!
