Sainz fastest during Day 2 afternoon as Perez hits issue

Carlos Sainz has placed himself at the top of the timesheets midway through the afternoon session of pre-season testing in Bahrain, posting a 1:30.424.

Sainz strapped on a set of C4 tyres half an hour before the mid-point of the session to lower the pre-season testing benchmark twice, first posting a 1:30.6 before improving by two-tenths of a second.

The session started early to make up for the time lost in the morning outing, which was stopped early to fix a loose drain cover.

It was Sainz's team-mate Leclerc who suffered damage by running over the loose cover however Ferrari was able to make rapid repairs and send Sainz out for the afternoon.

Leclerc's best time from the morning placed him in third place, behind the McLaren of Lando Norris.

Issue for Perez

While Red Bull's opening day of running was smooth sailing with over 140 laps for Max Verstappen, day two was a more difficult affair.

Shortly after the clock ticked under the three-hour mark, Perez trundled back to the pit lane with an obvious issue with his car - however he was only stationary for a few minutes before emerging back onto the track.

The Mexican driver was in fourth place, narrowly edging out the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.

The second Aston Martin car was further down the order with Fernando Alonso rounding out the top 10, behind Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant who are entering their second seasons in F1.

On his first day in the 2024 Mercedes car, Lewis Hamilton was seventh behind former teammate Valtteri Bottas.