Kevin Magnussen has gone quicker than the times set during the official testing session in Bahrain, as Haas were granted an extra hour of track time during the evening. With Haas not ready for the opening morning of testing on Thursday, due to a logistics issue outside of their control, the team were granted special dispensation to carry out an extra hour of track time after the chequered flag on Friday. With the test officially concluded at 19:00 local time, as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz finished as the quickest man, Magnussen set about putting in some extra laps on an empty circuit.
Magnussen quickly finds his feet
Astonishingly, the Danish driver proceeded to then set the fastest time of the day, albeit after everyone else had finished. With just a few minutes left in his hour before being shown the chequered flag himself, Magnussen put in a 1:33.207 to go three-tenths quicker than what Sainz had managed. Magnussen's time was set on the Soft C4 tyre, and was some way quicker than what he had managed over the course of the shared track time earlier in the day. Having returned to an F1 cockpit for the first time since the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after receiving the call to replace the ousted Nikita Mazepin, Magnussen found his feet throughout Friday afternoon as he finished ninth with a best time three seconds away from Sainz.
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