Leclerc tops Day 2 of F1's pre-season testing in his Ferrari while Hamilton flounders

• Charles Leclerc set the pace on Day 2 of pre-season testing.

• His time was 0.2 seconds quicker than that of Pierre Gasly's.

• Lewis Hamilton was the slowest driver at the end of Day 2.

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Charles Leclerc, in his Ferrari, was the top of the crop in pre-season running in Barcelona on Thursday (24 February), a day marred by two red flags.

Red Bull's Sergio Perez caused the first red when he stopped late in the morning and could not return until much later, spending a long time in the garage. Then it was Nikita Mazepin of the Haas team that got stuck with a damaged fuel pump midway through the afternoon, causing a 15-minute red flag - though he managed to get back out within the hour.

Leclerc claimed P1 in a time of 1.19.689, and this was followed closely by Pierre Gasly, with Alpha Tauri also topping the mileage stakes with 150 laps. This pushed Daniel Ricciardo in his McLaren into the third position.

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The standings

George Russell was again the pick of the Mercedes crop ending the day on P4 as Lewis Hamilton, an early front runner, was pushed out to eventual P15 on the standings.

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz rounded out the top five by less than a second.

As Sebastian Vettel ran the afternoon stint, he claimed sixth spot for Aston Martin, narrowly pushing out Sergio Perez to claim P7. The Mexican added 40 laps in the afternoon to his morning tally of 38.

The last two who made it into the top ten were Alex Albon (P9) for Williams, followed by rookie Zhou Guanyu in Alfa Romeo.

Friday is the last day of running before the teams depart Spain and prepare to head to Bahrain for the official pre-season test.

All the