Carlos Sainz spearheads Ferrari 1-2-3 as F1 season concludes

Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, Brazil, 2022 — Photo: © LAT Images

Abu Dhabi test

Sainz spearheads Ferrari 1-2-3 as F1 season concludes

Spanish driver posted a time of one minute 25.245s

Tuesday 22 November 2022 15:38

Carlos Sainz spearheaded a Ferrari one-two-three in the F1 season-ending test in Abu Dhabi.

The nine-hour session at the Yas Island circuit, that just two days previously staged the final race of the year, was a two-fold exercise.

Each of the 10 teams fielded two cars - one for young drivers and the other to further aid Pirelli's assessment of its tyres for 2023.

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By the conclusion, Sainz was quickest with a lap of one minute 25.245secs, 0.138s ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc, while Academy driver Robert Shwartzman was a further 0.117s adrift.

By comparison, two-time F1 champion Max Verstappen's pole lap in his Red Bull on Saturday was 1:23.824s.

It was also a day for the teams to run their new drivers for next season following rare widespread agreement to allow them to switch to their rivals.

This resulted in the likes of Pierre Gasly getting his first taste of Alpine machinery after concluding his time with AlphaTauri on Sunday, and the Frenchman was fourth overall. 0.444s behind Sainz, followed by Verstappen.

Williams' Alex Albon was seven-tenths behind Sainz, with new-for-2023 team-mate Logan Sargeant only a tenth further back.

Nyck de Vries made the most of his move to AlphaTauri, completing a day high 151 laps, with his best a 1:26.111s.

There were also debuts for Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin, with the two-time title-holder 12th overall, just over a second down.

Oscar Piastri was 14th for McLaren with a time of 1:26.340s, half-a-second up on his new team-mate Lando Norris.

Nico Hulkenberg made his Haas debut, with the 35-year-old 19th of the 24 that took to the circuit, 1.755s behind Sainz.

Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, meanwhile, finally sat in their troublesome W13s for the final time, with the British pair 17th and 23rd, the latter two seconds off the pace.