F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Sainz fastest as Ferrari trio tops Abu Dhabi post-season test

Carlos Sainz led a Ferrari 1-2-3 at the end of Tuesday's post-season test in Abu Dhabi that marked the final day of running of the F1 2022 season.

All ten teams were in action at Yas Marina on Tuesday, with each outfit running two cars, splitting the workload assigned by Pirelli between their race drivers and young hopefuls.

It was a largely drama-free session, with only a few minor technical issues encountered by several drivers.

Sainz took over in the afternoon from Scuderia teammate Charles Leclerc, and set a fastest lap time of 1m25.245s that edged the Monegasque by 0.138s.

Completing Ferrari's clean sweep was development driver Robert Shwartzman who clocked in 0.155s adrift from Sainz.

Behind the Scuderia's trio, Alpine's Pierre Gasly celebrated his first day of work with his new team with a productive day of running that earned him the fourth fastest lap, 0.444s behind Sainz.

The Frenchman was the quickest of the drivers running with their new teams, outpacing Red Bull's Max Verstappen and the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant.

Nyck de Vries, also running for the first time with his new outfit clocked in P8, while young guns Liam Lawson and Jack Doohan rounded off the top ten for Red Bull and Alpine respectively.

Fernando Alonso was P11 in the session in which the Spaniard became acquainted with his nes Aston Martin crews, while Oscar Piastri's much anticipated debut with McLaren saw the Aussie produce the 14th fastest lap.

However, Piastri was forced to stop out on the track during the third hour of running due to a minor power unit issue. The McLaren rookie nevertheless achieved the equivalent of two race distances onboard his MCL36 over the course of the day.

Pierre Gasly

F1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg was another driver that suffered a glitch when his Haas VF-22 was halted by a technical issue in Yas Marina's second sector during the second hour of running.

Looking at the lap count, AlphaTauri's de Vries topped the mileage chart with 151 laps, while his teammate Yuki Tsunodo was second with 135 laps.

The field was closed out by Mercedes junior Frederik Vesti, George Russell and finally Alfa Romeo's Theo Pourchaire.

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Michael Delaney

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