By Balazs Szabo on

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc ended the second day of Pirelli tyre test on top, beating his new team mate Lewis Hamilton and McLaren racer Oscar Piastri as the Scuderia and the Woking-base outfit brought the two-day of running at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to an end.

The second and final day of testing for Pirelli at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit came to an end as the Milan-based tyre supplier concluded its work with Ferrari and McLaren.

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton shared driving duties, using the modified Ferrari SF-24, while Oscar Piastri was at the wheel of a McLaren MCL60. Both cars had been adapted to suit the prototype tyres designed around the new technical regulations that will come into force next year, being narrower than the current ones by 25 millimetres at the front and 30 at the rear.

A total of 300 laps was completed today, 74 by the Monegasque driver, 74 for his British team-mate and 152 for the Australian. Leclerc set a benchmark of 1’14”971, Hamilton clocked in a time of 1’16”759 while Piastri set a lap time of 1’15”815. However, it is worth noting that the overall lap times have no real significance given the different work programmes carried out for Pirelli by the two teams.

Commenting on the two-day running, Pirelli’s Motorsport Director Mario Isola: “It was a very useful session, particularly when it came to providing a comparison between the various different constructions for next season, as well as experimenting with some compounds from the harder end of the range.

“The Barcelona circuit is known as one of the most demanding for the tyres in terms of the energy exerted and degradation, therefore the information we have gathered over these two busy days will be very important for the future development of this generation of tyres.

“It’s a really demanding start to the year with four test sessions even before the season begins and I want to thank all the teams that are working with us, because we know how busy they are at the moment.”

Following on from last week’s test in Paul Ricard and this one in Barcelona, the team of Pirelli engineers are heading further south next week, for two days of testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, in Andalusia on 13 and 14 February. Alpine will be taking part on both days, while McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each.

The final pre-season test will take place at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on 2 and 3 March with Alpine and Williams running both days. This same venue will then host the only three day test when all teams will run their 2025 cars prior to the opening round, the Australian Grand Prix.


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