This year’s pre-season tests are officially over. The last chance to test this year’s cars before the start of the season went without major dramas. Kimi Räikkönen, the most experienced field rider, drove the most laps, while Max Verstappen was the fastest. In a short summary, we bring you the most interesting moments of today and also a summary of the entire weekend.
Tags: Pre-season tests
Published 14. 03 2021 – Petr Čermák
The fastest test time was set by Max Verstappen, who demonstrates Red Bull’s readiness for this season. He drove his time on a set of C4 tires. Verstappen drove a total of 64 laps in 4 hours, as his colleague Sergio Pérez tested in the morning, finishing in eighth place with 49 laps.
Kimi Räikkönen and Alfa Romeo were also at the top of the results list for a while. The 2007 world champion drove the most laps of all today – a total of 165. Fin finished the fastest time 55 minutes before the end of the test, but in the end he was overcome not only by Max Verstappen, but also by Júki Cunoda and Carlos Sainz.
Cunoda did very well. Except for a few rookie mistakes (he spun in the seventh turn) he kept a constant speed. In addition, his time could have been even faster, but in the end he took second place with a loss of less than one tenth of a second to Verstappen. His fastest attempt went on the C5 set (softer than Verstappen’s C4).
Carlos Sainz, who will race for Ferrari this year, took third place. The Spaniard was bothered by problems with the transmission, but in the end he drove a total of 79 laps (only one less than in the morning his colleague Charles Leclerc). Sainz even clashed with Kim Räikkönen on the track, but they both managed to reach the pits with the damaged cars.
Lewis Hamilton circled 54 laps with his Mercedes. Just like yesterday, he finished in class, this time in the last turn when approaching the finish line. In the end, he drove the fifth fastest lap on the C5 mix.
George Russell was the second most active rider of the day. He drove a total of 157 laps and placed sixth.
However, not all riders left the race track in the last minutes. For example, Daniel Ricciardo or Fernando Alonso remained in the garage.
Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin is not experiencing a relaxed debut. Today ended his day in the penultimate place with a total of 56 laps. The four-time champion was stopped by technical problems.
Overall, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo were the most active
AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo drove the most laps in all three days. Both recorded 422 laps (2283 km). They were followed by a Ferrari with 404 laps, and Alpine (396) and Haas (394) also reached the top five.
At the opposite end of the table is the Mercedes, which drove only 304 laps. In recent years, however, silver arrows have been regularly at the top of the table. It is also interesting that no team with a Mercedes engine finished in the top 5.
Among the riders was the most active Pierre Gasly, who circled 237 laps. The second was Kimi Räikkönen (229) and the third was newcomer Nikita Mazepin (213). But Charles Leclerc (212) and Fernando Alonso (206) were also active.
Roy Nissany (83) drove the fewest laps, followed by four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, who completed only 117 laps during the pre-season tests.
Now everything is ready for the first race of this season, which will be the Bahrain GP on March 28.
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