Sainz on top for Ferrari as F1 testing continues

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz set the pace during the second morning of Formula 1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

As per Thursday’s opening day teams were productive from the outset in Bahrain, with little in the way of incident or setbacks for any of the 10 teams, as green flag running continued throughout.

Sainz posted a time of 1:32.486s to finish clear of the pack at the end of the four-hour session, held in hot and sunny conditions.

Sainz’s time left him a mere 0.063s in front of Williams rookie Logan Sargeant, who vaulted up the order on Soft tyres in the FW45.

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Fernando Alonso was third-fastest for Aston Martin, within half a second of Sainz, as he remained in the AMR23.

Alonso will complete all of Friday’s action for the team as it continues to evaluate its Saturday line-up amid Lance Stroll’s absence.

Reserve driver Felipe Drugovich remains on standby in Bahrain for the team.

Zhou Guanyu completed the least mileage – and was the only driver not to rack up a race distance – but he still managed 44 laps in the C43 as he wound up fourth.

Kevin Magnussen was fifth for Haas, ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, while Sergio Perez completed a race simulation prior to the break for Red Bull and wound up seventh.

Lewis Hamilton lost a minor piece of bodywork exiting Turn 3 but it did not impact his run plan en route to eighth, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Tsunoda was the most productive driver through the course of the four-hour session as he racked up 85 laps.

The final 15 minutes of the session were allocated to undertaking testing of various systems, including a Virtual Safety Car period, red flag and standing restart procedure.

Testing will resume at 15:15 local time and run through 19:30