Daniel Ricciardo continued McLaren's strong start to pre-season testing for the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship, as he clocked the fastest time of the morning session on Thursday. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz had started the day with intent, climbing to the top early on with a 1:21.0 before reducing his time down to a 1:20.8 to lead the way at the halfway point of the morning . Shortly after that, Sainz went quicker again with a 1:20.5, having gone fastest in all three sectors. Ricciardo was his closest challenger, as the Australian took over the McLaren MCL36 from Day 1 pace-setter Lando Norris. After a smooth and productive morning, putting in plenty of laps during the first couple of hours and then moving onto some quicker runs, it was approaching the lunch break that Ricciardo delivered a new fastest time on the Medium (C3) tyre – clocking a 1:20.355 to go two-tenths clear of Sainz as the chequered flag fell. AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly finished the morning in third place, as the French driver made his first appearance of the 2022 pre-season. He finished a further two-tenths back from Sainz, setting a 1:20.764. In terms of laps completed, Ferrari led the way as they racked up 71 laps with Sainz. Alpine managed 65 laps with Esteban Ocon, Haas finished the morning on 66 with Mick Schumacher, while McLaren put in 63 laps with Ricciardo.
Red Bull cause the first red flag of pre-season testing
Red Bull's Sergio Perez sparked the first on-track stoppage of F1's pre-season test. Some 35 minutes before the lunch break, Perez came to a halt in the final sector as he was circulating on his 39th lap of the day. Red Bull have confirmed to RacingNews365.com that a gearbox issue was the cause of the stoppage. Under wraps and carefully guarded, the RB18 was loaded onto a truck and returned to the Red Bull garage. Perez was seventh in the times at the point of his stoppage, 1.9 seconds away from the fastest lap from Sainz. There were also ongoing issues for Alfa Romeo. After their truncated day of running on Wednesday due to a damaged floor, Valtteri Bottas only logged 12 laps during the morning on Thursday. It was a quiet morning for Mercedes as well, with Lewis Hamilton driving the W13 to put in 40 laps of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and finish the morning in ninth place. You can stay up to date with all the action from Barcelona in the dedicated RacingNews365.com live blog .
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