Carlos Sainz of Ferrari set the best lap on the second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, a day marked by several red flags.
At lunchtime, Sainz took over from teammate Charles Leclerc and set a 1:33.532 benchmark on soft tires in the middle of the day. He finished half a second ahead of Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s second-place driver on Friday.
With 40 minutes left, the defending champion battled Sainz wheel to wheel, and the pair showed late braking at the end of the day.
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll finished third ahead of Lewis Hamilton in fourth, Mercedes driver succeeded George Russell who finished 13th with 67 laps in the morning.
READ MORE: ‘Typical Mercedes, typical George’ – Sainz brushes off Russell’s claim that Ferrari is strongest in pre-season testing
Esteban Ocon, fifth, stopped just over 90 minutes before the end of the session – the morning leader showed the fourth red flag of the day, driving over 100 laps behind him. He later showed up to increase the number of laps on a more promising day for Alpine.
Leclerc of Ferrari was in 6th place, his time was good for second place in the morning before conditions got cooler and time went awry.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was briefly interrupted by a pit stop to show a fifth red flag with just over an hour left. In the P7, he again got behind the wheel for the day in the absence of an unhealthy Daniel Ricciardo.
READ MORE: Norris says brake problems hampered McLaren at Bahrain test, warns ‘it won’t be an easy fix’
Sebastian Vettel finished eighth after taking over morning duties for Aston Martin, with reliability problems causing him to stop off track. When he did come out to end the morning session, an FIA red flag test signaled a quick retreat into the pit lane for the four-time champion. As the day ended, another red flag appeared – this time leading to a field practice start that ended all but Haas’ session.
Kevin Magnussen is back in the cab and continues to run into the evening as Haas catch up after dealing with delivery delays that prevented them from running Thursday morning. Teammate Mick Schumacher was 12th with an exhaust problem that forced the young German out of the car prematurely before lunch.
Rounding out the top ten was Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, who completed over 100 laps in a day.
2022 F1 pre-season testing: Latifi turns firefighter after Williams caught fire
In the morning, Valtteri Bottas issued the third red flag of the day by stopping off the track just after the FIA red flag test to end the session early. Alfa Romeo driver handed over duties to Zhou Guangyu in the afternoon, the rookie driver finished 15th and last in the table, but scored a solid half century of laps.
READ MORE: Bottas ‘much happier’ after Alfa Romeo had a productive test opening day in Bahrain
Walking behind Russell was former teammate Nicholas Latifi – the 14th-place Williams driver showed Friday’s first red flag when his car’s brakes lit up and caused him to turn around and then jump out at turn 12. resulting damage, although they cited a “minor” issue due to brake fires.
The heat in Bahrain is certainly heating up and with one day of pre-season testing teams need to do their best to perfect their cars ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 20th. Perhaps we will also see some new updates. decorate cars on Day 3.
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