Leclerc Keeps Ferrari on Top in Testing
BARCELONA (Reuters) - New recruit Charles Leclerc kept Ferrari on top of the timesheets with a full race distance before lunchtime on the second day of Formula One's pre-season testing in Spain on Tuesday.
After team mate Sebastian Vettel led the way on Monday with the fastest time and most laps, Kimi Raikkonen's 21-year-old replacement slotted in seamlessly with a time not far off the German's best.
The Monegasque produced a best time of one minute 18.247 seconds and did 73 laps, compared with Vettel's Monday 1:18.161 and 72 laps, in partially cloudy conditions and an ambient temperature of 14 degrees Celsius.
Five times world champion Lewis Hamilton, working through the Mercedes testing program, did one more lap than Leclerc however.
Ferrari's times have been quicker than anything from last year's weather-affected first four-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Rule changes, with new aerodynamic regulations, were expected to make the cars around 1.5 seconds a lap slower. But the evidence so far has been that much of the lost time has been regained.
After team mate Sebastian Vettel led the way on Monday with the fastest time and most laps, Kimi Raikkonen's 21-year-old replacement slotted in seamlessly with a time not far off the German's best.
The Monegasque produced a best time of one minute 18.247 seconds and did 73 laps, compared with Vettel's Monday 1:18.161 and 72 laps, in partially cloudy conditions and an ambient temperature of 14 degrees Celsius.
Five times world champion Lewis Hamilton, working through the Mercedes testing program, did one more lap than Leclerc however.
Ferrari's times have been quicker than anything from last year's weather-affected first four-day test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Rule changes, with new aerodynamic regulations, were expected to make the cars around 1.5 seconds a lap slower. But the evidence so far has been that much of the lost time has been regained.