Carlos Sainz led the way on Day 2 of the F1 Bahrain Test from Max Verstappen and Lance Stroll, with Kevin Magnussen getting an extra hour.
The penultimate day of F1 Bahrain Test saw troubles for multiple teams which included a fire for Williams’ Nicholas Latifi where his rear-right exploded when marshal rushed to douse the fire. It melted the suspension which ended their day early.
Williams termed it as a minor issue which escalated quickly but the repair job would take long which is why they shut shop. Latifi was one of the cars to cause a red flag with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and McLaren’s Lando Norris being others.
While Latifi and Bottas did so in the morning session, Ocon and Norris did so in the afternoon. The Finn’s stoppage co-incided with FIA’s rolling start procedure after a red flag but they couldn’t get it done properly, which they tried again in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, Ocon’s problem was suspected to be a leak as he managed to return to the track, much like Norris who stopped at the end of the pitlane. The morning session saw Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel stop at track but didn’t cause a red flag.
He stopped at a safe place where the F1 car was able to recover easily. His teammate Stroll (1m34.064s, 70), meanwhile, ended up third behind Ferrari’s Sainz (1m33.532s, 60) and Red Bull’s Verstappen (1m34.011s, 86) – all three on the C4 tyres, where the latter two had a mini duel too towards the end of the session.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton (1m34.141s, 47, C5) was fourth after driving in the afternoon, with Alpine’s Ocon (1m34.276s, 111, C4) fifth from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m34.366s, 54, C3) who ran in the morning hours. McLaren’s Norris (1m34.609s, 60, C3) slotted in seventh from Aston Martin’s Vettel (1m36.020s, 46, C3).
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen (1m36.505s) was ninth after taking over the car from Mick Schumacher in the afternoon. The Dane is to run for another hour at Bahrain where the American F1 team is making up for the lost time due to freight delay.
The Top 10 was rounded out by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (1m36.802s, 120, C3) from Alfa Romeo’s Bottas (1m36.987s, 25, C2) who ran in the morning hours along with Schumacher (1m37.846s, 23, C2) and Mercedes’ George Russell (1m38.585s, 67, C2) in 12th and 13th.
Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou (1m39.984s, 48, C2) rounded out the standings in 15th behind Williams’ Latifi (1m39.845s, 12, C2).
UPDATE: Following the fastest time of 1m33.207s from Magnussen during the extra hour of running, the order changed fully with the Dane quickest from Sainz and Verstappen. It dropped Stroll to fourth with Hamilton rounding the Top 5.
Rest of places, P6-15: Ocon, Leclerc, Norris, Vettel, Tsunoda, Bottas, Schumacher Russell, Latifi, Zhou
Here’s news on Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren and Williams’ fire
Here’s how Day 1 went in Bahrain
Here’s the F1 Bahrain Test line-up
