Esteban Ocon led the scorecards for the second morning of the 2022 pre-season testing in Bahrain – before Nicolas Latifi, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas were stopped in separate incidents.
Ocon set the benchmark for soft tires at 1m 34.276s at the start of day two and drove over 50 laps, the Frenchman driving all Friday. Charles Leclerc was tenth in second, leading on the morning of the first day, while Max Verstappen finished third for Red Bull.
With only 12 laps under his belt, Latifi finished 10th and last morning as he was forced to stop by smoke and then fire escaping from his rear brakes. The Canadian’s problem was caused by a “minor” problem, Williams said, and he now needs to deal with the damage he has received.
WATCH: Nicholas Latifi’s Williams stops in flames on the morning of the second day
In fourth place was Aston Martin’s Vettel, a four-time champion who completed 43 laps before being forced to stop at turn five. He went out again with 15 minutes left – just before the second red flag was raised as part of the FIA test. effectively ending the morning session.
Lando Norris moved up to fifth with 45 minutes left. On Thursday evening, the Briton revealed that a brake problem was the reason for McLaren’s relatively anonymous performance so far. He will continue after lunch as Daniel Ricciardo will be out due to illness.
Norris’ improvement dropped AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda to 6th, the Japanese driver is also set to continue the race after lunch, and Alfa Romeo’s seventh-placed Valtteri Bottas will hand over the reins to his rookie teammate Zhou Guanyou in the afternoon.
Bottas stopped off the track just after the second red flag, triggering the third and final red flag of the morning as the clock hit zero.
READ MORE: Bottas ‘much happier’ after Alfa Romeo had a productive test opening day in Bahrain
Haas’ Mick Schumacher got behind the wheel to take eighth in the morning, but his session ended early due to an exhaust problem. Schumacher’s new team mate Kevin Magnussen will be driving in the afternoon, and the team will have an extra hour to report back for the shortened Thursday.
Ninth-placed George Russell led the morning mileage charts with over 60 trips around Sakhir in his Mercedes W13 before Lewis Hamilton took over in the afternoon starting at 3:00 pm local time.
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