F1 News

Day Two Morning Round Up: Perez leads as Hamilton’s steering wheel sparks debate

20 February 2020 at 11:58
  • Bevan Youl

Sergio Perez continued Racing Point strong start to testing in Barcelona as he topped the times of the morning session, while Lewis Hamilton’s steering wheel sparked a lot of debate about its legality.

Racing Point and Perez were at the centre of talk on day one of testing about the similarity of their 2020 car and the Silver Arrows 2019 W10.
 
But that didn’t stop the Mexican from leading the way with a time of 1:17.347, faster than the time that left him third best on the previous day, as he was followed by Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon.
 
Pierre Gasly had a quick spin early on in the cold morning in his AT01but recovered to haul 65 laps behind the wheel and the fourth fastest time.
 
Ferrari had a relatively quiet running with Leclerc finishing sixth fastest as they have made it clear they are just doing their own thing this year.
 
It was a strange morning for Renault as it took Ricciardo 45 minutes to get out onto track, before the French team shut their garage doors after 17 laps to work on the car.
 
The Australian came racing back out though to gather as much data as possible before the lunch break, while George Russell had a positive session with Williams, sitting fifth fastest.
 
Romain Grosjean, Kimi Raikkonen and Lando Norris rounded off the ten drivers but Hamilton, who racked up 106 laps in the four hours and was seventh fastest, was the centre of conversation about his steering wheel.
 
On-board footage showed the six-time World Champion performing a push/pull motion on his steering wheel on the straights of the Circuit de Catalunya that seemed to adjust the position of the front wheels.
 
Leaving not just media and fans but other teams curious as to what the aid of it could be.

Be sure to stay up to date later with our liveblog for this afternoons session!