The Ferrari Driver’s Academy seems to be chockfull of talent and they are proving it. The latest driver is Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi. He topped the time sheets for the Scuderia Ferrari in the morning session of the post-Hungarian GP test. In the process, he broke the unofficial lap record at the circuit.
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The Italian has previously driven for Sauber, most notably as a stand in for an injured Pascal Wehrlein. Giovinazzi registered a 1m19.648s on soft tyres after just three hours.
His lap was more than three seconds slower than the fastest lap during the race weekend. Fellow Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel posted a 1m16.170s in FP3 on Saturday ahead of qualifying.
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Giovinazzi toppled McLaren young driver Lando Norris off the top and the latter ended the morning session in P2.
British driver Norris set a 1m19.66 on medium tyres, just 0.318s slower than the Ferrari. His own lap time came after one and a half hours of running.
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Antonio Giovinazzi
Meanwhile, occupying 3rd position was Force India’s Nicholas Latifi with a 1m19.994. He was the last person in the 1m19s bracket.
It is also worth noting that Latifi was one of few drivers who ran an experimental front wing built to the F1 2019 specifications.
The other two were Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and Williams test driver Oliver Rowland. As it turned out, a vast majority of drivers favoured the soft tyre. Completing the top 5 was Marcus Ericsson with a 1m20.081s and Brendon Hartley who was a tenth slower.
In the Mercedes camp, F2 championship leader George Russell endured a quiet session to go sixth-fastest. Oddly enough, he was a no show for the first two hours and his lap count took a major hit. Finally, he made an appearance and slotted into sixth with a 1m20.231s. However, he had only 21 laps under his belt..
Ricciardo was next up for Red Bull on a 1m20.304s set on softs, ahead of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (softs), Rowland (mediums) and Pirelli tyre tester Sean Gelael in the second Toro Rosso.
