Sainz leads Leclerc and Shwartzman in post-season test in Abu Dhabi

Carlos Sainz set the fastest lap in the post-season test in Abu Dhabi which saw three Ferrari drivers take the top three places, with several drivers making their debuts for new teams such as Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri.

In a one-day test in which all teams participated with two cars and which lasted nine hours, Sainz set a best time of 1:25.245 after taking over the F1-75 from team-mate Leclerc four hours before the end and was 0.138 seconds faster than him.

Ferrari junior academy member Schwartzman, who also drove the F1-75 in the first free practice on Friday, took third place, just 0.017s behind Leclerc, after setting a personal best time twenty minutes before the end.

Gasly finished fourth in his first appearance for Alpine and two-time world champion Verstappen, who claimed a record 15th win of the season on Sunday, was fifth fastest for Red Bull.

Albon took sixth place for Williams ahead of future teammate Sargeant, who secured enough points on the super license to compete in Formula 1 with his fourth place in Formula 2 this season.

De Vries also made his debut for the team he will drive for next season – Dutchman finished eighth in the AlphaTauri AT03 with 151 laps completed, the most of any driver.

Stroll was ninth for Aston Martin ahead of Lawson in Red Bull, who also drove the RB18 in the first practice session on Friday, and Doohan again drove for Alpine and set the 11th fastest time.

Alonso made his Aston Martin debut driving an AMR22 without any sponsor markings, including a helmet in a non-sponsor camouflage design, and the Spaniard finished 12th, five hundredths of a second behind Stroll, in his first experience driving a Mercedes-powered car (he already experienced Ferrari power unit in 2014, Honda in 2015-2017, and Renault in 2018, 2021 and 2022).

Perez was 13th fastest in the second Red Bull ahead of Piastri in the McLaren who stopped on track due to a preventive power unit shutdown, but later continued and managed to complete 123 laps in the McLaren MCL36.

2022 Formula 2 champion Drugovich was again behind the wheel of Aston Martin and finished the test in 15th place ahead of Bottas in Alfa Romeo, Hamilton in Mercedes and Norris in McLaren.

Hulkenberg was behind the wheel of a Haas for the first time and finished 19th with 110 laps ahead of Tsunoda in the AlphaTauri and Fittipaldi who also drove for Haas.

ART Grand Prix F2 driver Frederik Vesti experienced this year’s Mercedes and finished 22nd to finish ahead of Russell, with Vesti’s team-mate and second-placed 2022 F2 driver Theo Pourchaire finishing last for Alfa Romeo.

Pirelli prepared five 2023 tyre compounds for this test and one of each team’s two cars was reserved exclusively for 2023 tyre testing.

RESULTS