Sainz Tops Bahrain Testing – Atlassian Williams Racing’s Carlos Sainz topped the time-sheets of Formula 1’s second day of pre-season testing as the Spaniard also clocked the most mileage of the field with 127 laps in total at the Bahrain International Circuit.
After Sir Lewis Hamilton ended the morning at the head of the times for Ferrari, most teams swapped their drivers for the afternoon session – with the exception of Williams, as Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Liam Lawson and Sainz remained behind the wheel of their respective entries before their team-mates have a full day’s running on day three.
Sainz showed no signs of slowing down in the afternoon, as the Williams driver was the first to hit the Sakhir circuit at 3pm local time. His rivals soon joined him – whilst McLaren’s Lando Norris – who topped the time-sheets on the opening day of running – emerged later on in the MCL39.
It was not all smooth sailing for Sainz, who suffered a spin during his time on circuit despite topping the times in the earlier proceedings, whilst Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also encountered a moment as drizzle fell on the track in the first half of proceedings.
As the afternoon went on and the sun set in Sakhir, Sainz remained at the head of the leaderboard lowering the benchmark to a 1:29.348 and 0.031 seconds clear of Hamilton’s morning session topper.
“I just finished a very long day here in Bahrain – a lot of laps, a bit of a stop-start day with the rain all the time, in Bahrain which is weird!” Sainz explained after a full day’s running in the FW47. “[There was] rain on-off, wind on-off. It was a bit of a complicated day, a very long day but a day that we managed to get away with it, do a lot of laps, improvise a bit the run plan as we were moving on, and we managed to complete the whole programme. We did some progress relative to yesterday, improving the balance of the car and improving the overall feeling with the car.” Sainz concluded, credit to Williams for the quote.
The Spaniard’s former team-mate Charles Leclerc slotted into third place for the Scuderia – after the Monegasque driver described his opening day of running as “positive” – whilst Mercedes AMG Petronas’s George Russell placed fourth ahead of his new team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll took sixth in the order and in-front of seventh-placed Red Bull of Liam Lawson with the latter suffering some lost track time due to a water systems issue aboard the RBPT-Honda-powered RB21 racer in the morning.
Both BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly followed in ninth and tenth respectively as both drivers clocked in a combined total of 127 tours for the Enstone based-outfit.
Visa Cash App Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar completed the top ten and racked up 94 laps in the afternoon session aboard the VCARB02. His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda was 12th overall as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso split the pairing in 11th – also one of the morning drivers.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri’s morning effort saw him 13th in the classification and in-front of team-mate Norris who placed 14th whilst Sauber duo Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were 15th and 16th respectively.
The MoneyGram Haas F1 Team entries of Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman followed at the rear as the Kannapolis-Banbury outfit continued to run their own programme.
At the end of the sessions the drivers ran some procedural checks for the FIA performing simulated formation laps and practice starts before the action came to an end.
You can catch up on the highlights of what happened on the day two’s action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klvF6zhTh2w
The final day of pre-season testing begins in a few hours’ time.
@LandoNorris sets pace on day one of Bahrain test. #F1 #F1IsBack