Hamilton dethroned as Norris sends F1 test message

Carlos Sainz topped the timing sheets on the second day of F1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

The Williams driver led the way over Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, his former team, in a cathartic full day of running for the Spaniard.

He was not, however, immune to the odd mistake, spinning his FW47 at Turn 1 as he started a push lap in the first half of the afternoon session.

The closing hours of the day saw drivers focus primarily on longer runs, including Leclerc and Lando Norris.

Having topped the timing board yesterday, the McLaren driver had a quieter afternoon on day two, finishing P14.

However, his long run pace was impressive, and difficult for the Woking team to disguise. On the C2 (second hardest) compound, the British driver was setting mid-to-high 1:32s, around a second per lap quicker than the Ferrari - a clear message sent.

The MCL39 proving to have both short and race run pace in hand, picking up where its constructors' championship-winning predecessor, the MCL38, left off.

The big movers in the final two hours of running on the middle day of the three-day test were Liam Lawson and Lance Stroll.

After an interrupted morning, the New Zealander got the better of the intermittent light rain to vault his RB21 from P13 at the two-hour mark to seventh-quickest. Meanwhile, The Aston Martin driver moved up from tenth-fastest to sixth in the AMR25.

Oliver Bearman, having taken over the Haas at lunch time from team-mate Esteban Ocon, continued the American squad's testing plan, setting monomaniacally on heavy-fuel, race simulation stints.

Having completed 160 laps on the first day, Haas racked up another 135 laps on the second. It is an approach that served the team well last term, as it jumped from plum last to seventh in the constructors' standings.

In the rest of rookie watch, Kimi Antonelli joined George Russell under the 1:30 lap time mark as the quickest first year driver. The 18-year-old did, however, have a number of lock ups as he sought out the limits of the W16, ruining at least one set of tyres in the process.

Jack Doohan also enjoyed a solid session, going faster than Pierre Gasly did in the morning, and just a second off the front-running pace.

Isack Hadjar had a cleaner day than yesterday, when he had two major off-track moments, but the Racing Bulls car remained a handful for the young Frenchman.

Like in the morning session, a mix of race control procedures ended the session, including a red flag check.