The second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain has begun, with Carlos Sainz currently topping the timesheets at the halfway point. Proceedings kicked off at 07:00 GMT and Fernando Alonso was amongst the first to hit the track, having come within three hundreths of a second of Max Verstappen's fastest time at the end of Day 1. The Aston Martin driver will be in the car for the entire day, while reserve driver Felipe Drugovich remains on standby due to Lance Stroll's absence. The Canadian suffered a cycling accident during pre-season training. Lewis Hamilton became the first driver to hit double figures on Friday's lap count following Mercedes' positive assessment of their opening day in the "much calmer" W14. While it was a slower start for Red Bull – with the mechanics seemingly busy working on the RB19 initially – Sergio Perez soon hit the circuit with flow-vis paint on his car. Also busy setting lap times was Sainz, who had a solid opening session on Thursday.
Can McLaren bounce back?
Day 2 got off to a quiet start for McLaren. Lando Norris did not set a time during his opening laps, before putting in a competitive lap nearly one hour into the session. With the team being the only squad to set less than 100 laps during the opening day of the Bahrain test, they will be hoping to catch up during Friday's running. The Briton sported aero rakes on his car during the earlier stages of the morning, a common occurrence during testing as teams look to gather valuable data. Unlike on Day 1, there have been no red flags or stoppages during the session so far. A piece of debris seemingly flew off Hamilton's car at one point, while the likes of rookie Logan Sargeant have experienced a lock-up. Yuki Tsunoda has been the busiest in terms of mileage, with the AlphaTauri driver having amassed 43 laps so far. The session will conclude at 11:15 GMT, before the afternoon's running begins at 12:15 GMT. Check out the Day 2 timesheets as of 09:00 GMT below.
Most read
