Photo: Race Pictures

Red Bull & Ferrari hit wet Barcelona track, McLaren sits out

21:05, 27 Jan

bySamson Ero

The second day of on-track running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya saw just two teams take to the wet track: Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Ferrari.

Both outfits, regular front-runners on the F1 grid, took to the weather-affected circuit to tick off another step of their scheduled three-day testing.

Red Bull were the first to hit the track with Max Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc joining the four-time world champion shortly after.

Charles Leclerc - Photo: Race Pictures

Verstappen, through the morning session, which was largely hampered by rain, clocked a total of 27 laps with his best lap time in the 1:20.0 range. Leclerc, on his part, despite completing more mileage, was reportedly over eight-tenths off the pace of the Dutch driver.

The pair, however, stepped out of their cars for the afternoon session, with teammates Isaac Hadjar and Lewis Hamilton taking to the wheel respectively.

While both teams opted to hit the track on Tuesday, the McLaren team chose not to run in the wet conditions at Montmelo. The papaya-coloured team, however, is expected to participate in the final three days of testing.

Leclerc exudes optimism after testing

Leclerc expressed his excitement after putting the SF-26 challenger through its paces at the Barcelona circuit.

The Monegasque driver, in his post-testing reaction, detailed how pleased he was with what the team could achieve despite the weather conditions.

The Ferrari driver, however, stressed that the Maranello-based outfit paid little attention to lap times and were solely focused on evaluating and stretching the newly assembled SF-26 machinery.

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