The second day of Formula 1 testing in Bahrain is over. Carlos Sainz was the fastest man on track today in his Ferrari F1-75, followed by Max Verstappen in the RB18. However, the day did not go smoothly with many red flags.
At Red Bull, Max Verstappen was allowed to take a seat in the RB18 today, after his teammate Sergio Perez had taken care of the whole day yesterday. The Dutchman covered a shorter distance with 86 laps than the 120 laps the Mexican drove yesterday, but Verstappen clocked a faster lap time with 1:34.011. This made him the second fastest man of the day. Carlos Sainz trumped him with a time of 1:33.532, both drivers set their fastest times on the C4 tyre. It is the second time that Ferrari has been the fastest team in the tests. On the second day of testing in Barcelona, ​​Ferrari was also at the top of the times list.
The absolute topper in terms of distance driven is Yuki Tsunoda, who has been riding alongside Pierre Gasly for Scuderia AlphaTauri (the former Toro Rosso) since last season. The Japanese drove 120 laps around the Bahrain International Circuit today. Alpine driver Esteban Ocon also has a nice ride with 111 laps. The gap with the third man is quite big, that is Max Verstappen with his 86 laps. Mercedes didn’t really score high today. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton jointly completed 114 laps, of which 47 for Hamilton and 67 for Russell. Hamilton was the fastest of the two with a time of 1:34.141, but does not get further than 4th place in the lap times.
The second day of testing was not without problems. Williams had to stop testing early in the morning because Nicholas Latifi’s car caught fire. It resulted in the team not getting past 12 laps. Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas also fell silent on the circuit in the morning. At McLaren, an ailing Daniel Ricciardo forced Lando Norris to sit behind the wheel all day for the second day in a row. Haas was allowed to continue for an hour longer after the flag fell due to the logistical problems that caused delays for the team yesterday. Tomorrow Haas will also get an extra two hours. Today was also the first day that the Dane Kevin Magnussen was allowed to drive for the team again.
The lap times, the tire on which the fastest lap was driven and the number of laps completed per driver today:
- Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, 1:33.532, C4 – 60 laps
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 1:34.011, C4, 86
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, 1:34.064, C4, 70
- Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:34.141, C5, 47
- Esteban Ocon, Alpine, 1:34.276, C4, 111
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, 1:34,366s, C3, 54
- Kevin Magnussen, Haas, 1:34,437, C3, 48
- Lando Norris, McLaren, 1:34,609, C3, 60
- Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, 1:36,020, C3, 46
- Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri, 1:36,802, C3, 120
- Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1:36.987, C2, 25
- Mick Schumacher, Haas, 1:37.846, C2, 23
- George Russell, Mercedes, 1:38.585, C2 (prototype), 67
- Nicholas Latifi, Williams, 1:39.845, C2 (prototype), 12
- Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo, 1:41.805, C2 (prototype), 48
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl