Carlos Sainz led the way for Ferrari on the second morning of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The Spaniard moved to the top just after the hour mark and stayed there, surpassing Max Verstappen’s fastest time from Thursday with a 1m32.486 on the C3 tyre compound.
Williams continued their very solid start to testing as an extended run on the C5 tyres allowed rookie Logan Sargeant to jump upto second, just 0.063s slower than Sainz.
74 laps complete and P2 at the end of the morning session. Great work, @LoganSargeant & team! ?#WeAreWilliams #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/Ptuwe8Hcgt
— Williams Racing (@WilliamsRacing) February 24, 2023
Fernando Alonso ran reliably and also kept Aston Martin near the pointy end of the timesheet in third. Zhou Guanyu was fourth in the Alfa Romeo.
After both finishing in the bottom three on Thursday, Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon sat fifth and sixth for Haas and Alpine respectively on Friday morning.
Red Bull finally gave Sergio Perez his first taste of the new RB19 with the Mexican completing 76 laps en route to P7.
Fridays with @SChecoPerez on track ? #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/X4kRJdoj1n
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) February 24, 2023
While at Mercedes, traction was Lewis Hamilton’s main issue in the soaring temperatures as he only finished P8.
Lando Norris was ninth as McLaren’s tricky test continued, while Yuki Tsunoda completed the most laps of anyone with 85 but was slowest in the AlphaTauri.
Full results from the morning of Day 2 can be seen below:
Sainz puts Ferrari on top as Williams breaks out the soft tyres on Day 2 at #F1Testing
#F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/2fBcKR8GTI— InsideRacing.com (@INSIDERACINGcom) February 24, 2023