Leclerc leads Norris as F1 2022 pre-season testing begins

Ferrari was fastest on a smooth opening morning of 2022 Formula 1 pre-season testing as the new rules era began at Barcelona.

Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ new recruit George Russell swapped the top spot through the morning, with the Ferrari on top with a 1m20.165s set on the mid-range C3 compound tyres when the field paused for the lunchbreak.

You can follow every moment of F1 pre-season testing on The Race Live Hub.

Lando Norris managed to split them with a late lap in the McLaren, just over three tenths of a second down on Leclerc and a similar margin in front of Russell.

Red Bull had closely guarded its true 2022 design until testing began, and immediately attracted attention for a dramatic and severe undercut on its sidepods.

Max Verstappen was one of the early pacesetters and also topped the lap count on 80 along with Leclerc, though he was sixth in outright times behind Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin and Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri.

Reliability was impressive through most of the field, despite the scale of the rule change.

There were no red flags at all during the opening four hours, and Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams all covered more than a grand prix distance.

Alfa Romeo and Haas were the exceptions on the mileage front. The camouflage colour Alfa Romeo spent a long period in the garage and test driver Robert Kubica only covered nine laps due to what the team described as a broken part that needed to be replaced. The team is confident the car will be back up and running in the afternoon, with Valtteri Bottas at the wheel.

Haas representative Nikita Mazepin appeared for just 11 more laps than Kubica.

Mazepin and Kubica unsurprisingly brought up the rear of the order, behind Fernando Alonso’s Alpine (pictured above) and Nicholas Latifi’s Williams.

Day one times morning

1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m20.165s, C3, 80 laps
2. Norris (McLaren) 1m20.474s, C3, 50 laps
3. Russell (Mercedes) 1m20.784s, C3, 77 laps
4. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m21.276s, C3, 52 laps
5. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m21.638s, C3, 43 laps
6. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m22.246s, C2, 80 laps
7. Alonso (Alpine) 1m23.317s, C3, 54 laps
8. Latifi (Williams) 1m23.379s, C3, 66 laps
9. Mazepin (Haas) 1m26.455s, C2, 20 laps
10. Kubica (Alfa Romeo) 1m25.909s, C3, 9 laps