F1 2023 Testing: Sainz stays on top going into final hour
23rd February 2023Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz remained on top, after three hours and 15 minutes, keeping the top three remain unchanged going into the final hour of the morning test.
Sainz topped the timing board with the fastest time of the morning ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Alexander Albon (Williams), keeping the top three unchanged from the previous hour.
After two full hours of running, the bulk of the teams were in full flow with their testing programmes. However, the outlier was Aston Martin who finally managed to get their car running enough to allow their reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich to set a lap time.
Aston Martin’s programme was hindered by the car being forced to stop out on track in the first 10 minutes before electrical issues caused more concerns.
Despite setting a number of lap times, Drugovich remained the slowest driver out on track – out of the 10 available drivers – 3.654 seconds off the pace of Sainz yet 1.3 seconds away from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in ninth.
As it stood, going into the final 10 minutes of the third hour, Sainz remained on top of the timing boards ahead of both Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Williams’ Alexander Albon who occupied second and third respectively.
Out of the 10 drivers, all but two completed their fastest laps on the yellow medium compound tyres. While Mercedes’ George Russell, in fifth, and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, in ninth, set their fastest laps on prototype tyres.
After the third hour of running, Albon secured the most amount of laps, with 50 laps to their name, as the session progressed into its final hour and 15 minutes of running. On the other hand, Drugovich had the least amount of laps under their belt with 21 laps completed.
That’s all for the article; F1 2023 Testing: Sainz stays on top going into final hour!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
