Leclerc keeps Ferrari top of the pile on second day of testing

Charles Leclerc topped the timing screens at the end of day two of testing, notching up an impressive 157 laps to keep Ferrari comfortably fastest of all.

Ferrari finished day one on top and it was more of the same on day two as well. His 1:18.247s stayed the fastest time of the day.

Alexander Albon’s first day in an F1 car got off to a difficult start as he spun after just four corners on a green track and cold tyres.

Haas struggled in the morning session, failing to get out on track for the first few hours after developing an overnight issue but Kevin Magnussen was able to hit the ground running when he did appear, going second fastest behind Leclerc.

Daniel Ricciardo had the scary moment of the week so far, his DRS flap failing near the end of the main straight, pitching his R.S.19 into a high-speed spin.

Somehow the Renault stayed out of the barriers but the team was able to fix the issue and get back out on track.

Mercedes continued to hold their cards close to their chest. Lewis Hamilton managed 74 laps in the morning session and set a 1:19.928s, over a second behind the Ferrari of Leclerc.

The afternoon session began with Mercedes hitting the track early before slowly being joined one by one as the rest of the drivers emerged and completed installation laps.

Long runs were the order of the day with much of the initial running taking place on high fuel loads for everyone.

McLaren embarked on a full race run with Lando Norris complete with the now typical one pit stop during his run, swapping from C4 (soft) to C3 (medium) tyres.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen was the first driver to show an improvement all afternoon. He stayed second to Leclerc at that point on a 1:19.206s.

Haas had changed their plans to keep Magnussen in the car for the whole of the afternoon however the team reverted to their original schedule and Pietro Fittipaldi stepped in. The Dane was forced to make way after an apparent seat fit issue.

The red flag made its first appearance of the day was caused by a spinning Red Bull at the hands of Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman spun into the barriers with just over an hour to go in the session, damaging the rear of the new RB15.

The session resumed with just over an hour left of running and Leclerc was straight back out to finish the day as the team started.

Bottas was able to improve his time to go sixth fastest on the day, a 1:19.535s still some distance off of the Ferrari benchmark but his time was shaded by Toro Rosso’s Albon late on.

The improvements kept on coming in late on. Lando Norris popped up in the final 15 minutes to go P2 with a 1:18.553s and Albon continued to improve and finished P4 with a 1:19.301s.

Final times and lap count on day two:

Charles Leclerc - Ferrari - 1:18.247s - 157
Lando Norris - McLaren - 1:18.930s - 104
Kevin Magnussen - Haas - 1:19.206s - 59
Alexander Albon - Toro Rosso - 1:19.301s - 132
Antonio Giovinazzi - Alfa Romeo - 1:19.312s - 100
Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes - 1:19.535s - 89
Pierre Gasly - Red Bull - 1:19.814s - 92
Nico Hulkenberg - Renault - 1:19.837s - 95
Daniel Ricciardo - Renault - 1:19.886s - 28
Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes - 1:19.928s - 74
Lance Stroll - Racing Point - 1:20.433s - 79
Pietro Fittipaldi - Haas - 1:21.849s - 13