Kevin Magnussen set the fastest time on a bizarre penultimate day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Carlos Sainz ended the planned eight hours of running in P1, posting a 1m33.532s on the C4 tyres just before the midway point in the afternoon with a bit of help from a slipstream.
However, freight issues meant Haas were granted an extra hour of running under the lights, and Magnussen, in his first outing since his unexpected comeback was announced on Wednesday, used it to good effect setting a 1m33.207s on the same C4 compound.
A late flying lap from Max Verstappen jumped the world champion up to third behind Sainz in the Red Bull, albeit seven-tenths slower than the Ferrari on the same tyre.
Lance Stroll was only half a tenth behind the Dutchman in fourth also on the C4 rubber, as Aston Martin continued their quietly very positive pre-season.
Despite the much-talked-about sidepods, Mercedes are either sandbagging or appear to need more time to understand their updated car.
The W13 was seen porpoising a lot on the straight and didn’t appear great in the corners either, with Lewis Hamilton only fifth fastest despite using the C5 tyre, the softest in the range.
Morning pacesetter Esteban Ocon ended sixth fastest but did cause a red flag shortly after surpassing the 100-lap mark with an apparent loss of power in the Alpine.
Charles Leclerc was seventh after running in the morning session, ahead of Lando Norris, who managed 60 laps despite being limited to short runs due to a front brake issue on the McLaren.
Sebastian Vettel was another early runner in ninth, as Yuki Tsunoda managed the most laps for a single driver with 120 tours of the Bahrain circuit en route to P10 in the AlphaTauri.
Valtteri Bottas was 11th, while rookie teammate Guanyu Zhou was slowest overall for Alfa Romeo as the Swiss outfit managed 73 laps.
Mick Schumacher was 12th ahead of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, with Williams failing to return to the track following a rear brake fire in the morning.
So a strange test day with Haas going fastest when everyone else was having their post-session cooldown.
Throw in some botched attempts at system checks at the end of each session due to cars stopping on track, and you feel a crazy start to the new season is just around the corner!
Full results from Friday can be seen below:
That’s one way to end your first day back in an F1 car @KevinMagnussen! ?
Fastest lap and P1 for the Dane ?#F1Testing #F1 pic.twitter.com/hSVHsJU28f
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 11, 2022
