Williams have withdrawn from the remainder of Friday's testing action in Bahrain, due to the extent of damage incurred on their FW44 in the morning session. Nicholas Latifi was at the wheel of the car when he went off the track less than two hours into the morning, with what appeared to be a brake issue – the problem resulted in a small fire that required the marshals to attack the flames with a fire extinguisher. The session was red-flagged while the car was put onto a recovery truck and brought back to the Williams garage.
Damage is too much for Williams to resume
Having worked diligently on the car following the incident, Williams admitted defeat just over an hour into the afternoon session. "Repairs are underway on the FW44," read a short statement from the team. "We will not take part in the remainder of today's running but look forward to hitting the track for the final day of testing here tomorrow." Williams thus managed just 12 laps of the Sakhir circuit on Friday, with Latifi's best time placing him 14th at the time of writing.
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Repairs are underway on the FW44. We will not take part in the remainder of today’s running but look forward to hitting the track for the final day of testing here tomorrow 🙌 pic.twitter.com/T3eTjUHJ67 — Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) March 11, 2022
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