#F1 2022 Bahrain Test, Day 2: @Carlossainz55 fastest in red-flag filled day. #F1Testing

Sainz fastest – Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fastest on day two of Formula 1 Pre-Season testing in Bahrain on a day disrupted by a number of red flags.

At midday, Sainz took over duties from team-mate Charles Leclerc to post the benchmark of a 1:33.532 on softer C4 rubber, halfway through the afternoon. The Spaniard completed 60 laps in mileage and was ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in second.

With 40 minutes left on the clock, the reigning World Champion fought wheel-to-wheel with Sainz, as the duo put on a late-braking display later on.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll put his AMR22 third to drop Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to fourth, with the Briton taking over from George Russell, who ended the day down in 13th and completing 67 tours of the Bahrain International Circuit in the morning.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon who rounded out the top five, had his pink-liveried A522 racer come to a halt with just an hour-and-a-half of the session remaining – as the morning session-topper brought out the fourth red flag of the day with more than 100 laps run. The Frenchman re-emerged later on to improve his lap-count on what was a more promising day for the Enstone-based outfit.

The aforementioned Leclerc was sixth quickest for Ferrari, as the Monegasque driver worked on car set-up using the C3 Medium compound, also doing some long runs on the same tyre before switching over to the C2 for the final few minutes. Leclerc clocked up 54 laps with a best effort of a 1:34.366 and 0.834 seconds down on his day-topping team-mate.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was briefly interrupted from a stoppage at the pit-exit to bring out a red flag with just over an hour left of running. The Briton was seventh in the order, and took the wheel of the Mercedes-powered MCL36 for the whole day due to the absence of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo who was unwell.

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel finished day two in eighth, after taking on morning duties for the Silverstone-based outfit, with a reliability-problem seeing the four-time World Champion stop off-track. When the German did return to complete the morning session, the FIA’s red-flag test cued a quick retreat for the Aston Martin driver. As the day ended, another red flag hit – this time resulting in a practice rolling start for the field to end all, but Haas F1 Team’s session.

Kevin Magnussen made his return to Formula 1, and then continued running after the chequered flag was waved, as Haas made up for time lost due to a logistical issue, which stopped them from running on Thursday morning.

The Dane would actually have topped the time-sheets, setting a best effort of a 1:33.207 during his solo runs of the Bahrain International Circuit in the evening.

His team-mate Mick Schumacher was 12th in the classification, meanwhile, an exhaust issue on his VF-22 racer saw the young German, forced to end his session early before lunch-break.

Completing the top ten was AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, who ran a solid 119 laps in the AT03 racer.

In the morning, Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN’s Valtteri Bottas brought out the day’s third red flag, stopping his C42 racer off-track just after the FIA’s red flag test to end the session early. The Finn handed over piloting duties to team-mate Zhou Guanyu for the afternoon, the youngster down at the rear – but racked up a decent 48 tours.

Behind Russell, was his former team-mate Nicholas Latifi – the Williams driver brought out the first red flag of the day when his FW44 racer’s brakes caught fire, caused him to spin and then hop out at turn 12. The Grove-based outfit’s running was immediately ended by the result damage, though they cited it as a “minor” issue for the brake fire. The Canadian was down in 14th.

One more day remains of pre-season testing ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend, teams have it all to do now to have their machines ready. We may also see some new updates on the final day of running.

Formula 1 2022 Bahrain Pre-Season Test, Day 2 Classification

Catch up on the first day of action here at the link below:

#F1 2022 Bahrain Pre-Season Test Day 1: @PierreGASLY tops time-sheets.