Sergio Perez overcame an engine issue to complete 117 laps on day two of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Mexican finished seventh on a 1:31.682 and is excited about the pace of the RB16B even though has has only done two race distances in the Red Bull. Many drivers struggled at turn 11 due to the tailwind including Perez and he had a relatively tough morning, doing just 40 laps having spent much of the session in the garage. Overall, Perez was able to get through Red Bull's programme for Saturday. "Sergio got through a full race simulation today, including pit stops, which was very useful for him as he embeds with the Team even more and gets up to speed with all our procedures," said Red Bull's Head of Race Engineering Guillaume Rocquelin. "We had a couple of small issues – nothing huge and it didn’t affect our engineering programme, so in a way these are things you want to find out about in testing. Those niggles aside, it was another solid day. It is clear that we have not been chasing lap times and have only run one of the harder compounds, so there are no real conclusions to be drawn from the overall time sheet. All in all, two good days. Perez also had a minor mishap in the afternoon when his engine cover flew off on the main straight when he was following the Williams of Nicholas Latifi. It caused a red flag, but Perez was soon back out onto the race track after a quick fix. "It was great to do a full day of testing in the RB16B and even though conditions are very tricky out there we got through plenty of work and there is plenty of development to come," said Perez. "It’s great to be working with the Team and I’m getting more and more used to things - I can already feel the potential.
Most read
