The Spanish Carlos Sainz, with the Ferrari SF-23, has been the great dominator of the morning on day 2 of the F1 pre-season tests in Bahrain
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) was the fastest in the first session of the second day of testing at the Sakhir circuit, the usual venue for the Bahrain Grand Prix, where the American Logan Sargeant (Williams) avoided a Spanish ‘double’ by improving the time of Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin).
Sainz, who did 70 laps, soon set a first reference time of 1:32.653 to lead the table and later lowered it a couple of tenths, to 1:32.486, unbeatable in training.
The man from Madrid beat the Red Bull record of the two-time world champion, the Dutchman Max Verstappen, in his Ferrari on the first day of practice (1:32.837).
In the final stretch of the session, the American Logan Sargeant was second (1:32.549), 63 hundredths behind Ferrari, but with an important nuance, since he used the C5 tire, the softest component in the range, while the Asturian (1:32.969), slightly worse than Thursday’s -1:32.866-, and the man from Madrid set their time with the C3 compound.
With the same tire, the Chinese Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo) was fourth, more than half a second behind Sainz (1:33.170).
The Danish Kevin Magnussen placed his Haas in fifth position and the French Esteban Ocon finished sixth in the time sheets with his Alpine.
The drivers tested long runs and also qualifying attempts in a session in which the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez (Red Bull), in his first day of preseason, accumulated kilometers with the tires that will be used next week (C1, C2 and C3) in the first Grand Prix of the season on this same circuit.
With his Red Bull, the man from Guadalajara was one of those who rolled the most (76 laps) and signed the seventh best time with C2 (1:33.751), just ahead of the British Lewis Hamilton (1:33.954).
The last classified of the session were already far from these times, the British Lando Norris (McLaren), ninth in the table above 1:35, and the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), tenth with 85 laps, who more kilometers added.
In the last minutes of training they experienced different race situations, such as the virtual safety car and the starting grid, although not too organized, since several drivers were stopped, including Norris, right in front of Sainz, who had to give a swerve to avoid it.
We’re officially half-way through #F1Testing ????
Here’s our running order from our early session on Day 2 ????#F1 pic.twitter.com/DhkD8TyC4R
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 24, 2023
Carlos is in charge on Friday morning ????#F1 #F1Testing https://t.co/i6xQap6wTz
— Formula 1 (@F1) February 24, 2023
