While Red Bull faces problems in Barcelona, Ricciardo is the fastest

Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren took the lead in the second morning of Barcelona testing, while Red Bull was the first team to be penalised this week.

Daniel Ricciardo earned the best lap of the early session on Thursday, continuing McLaren’s excellent start to pre-season test for the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz had had a promising start to the day, standing at the top with a 1:21.0 early on before lowering his time to a 1:20.8 to take the lead at the halfway point. Sainz went faster again shortly after, this time with a 1:20.5, having won all three sectors.

Ricciardo, who took over the McLaren MCL36 from Day 1 pacesetter Lando Norris, was his closest challenger.

Ricciardo set a new fastest time on the Medium (C3) tyre as the chequered flag fell, clocking a 1:20.355 to go two-tenths clear of Sainz after a smooth and effective morning of putting in plenty of laps during the first two hours and then moving onto some faster runs as the break time approached.

Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri finished third this morning in his first appearance of the 2022 preseason. He set a 1:20.764 to finish two tenths slower than Sainz.

Ferrari took the lead in terms of laps accomplished by Sainz, completing 70. Alpine completed 65 laps with Esteban Ocon, Haas completed 64 with Mick Schumacher, while McLaren completed 63 circuits with Daniel Ricciardo.

Red Bull cause the first red flag of pre-season testing

Sergio Perez of Red Bull was the driver that brought the first pre-season test to a halt on the track.

Perez came to a standstill on his 39th lap of the day, 35 minutes before the lunch break, in the last sector. A gearbox failure was the cause of the halt, Red Bull revealed to RacingNews365.com.

The RB18 was placed onto a truck and returned to the Red Bull garage, where it was kept under wraps and closely guarded. At the moment of his stopped, Perez was eighth in the standings, just 1.9 seconds behind Sainz’s quickest lap.

Alfa Romeo had a number of challenges as well. Valtteri Bottas only completed 12 laps in the morning on Thursday after a shortened day of racing on Wednesday owing to a damaged floor.

Mercedes had a quiet morning as well, with Lewis Hamilton driving the W13 for 40 laps around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and finishing ninth overall.

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