Pre-season testing - Bahrain Day 2 22-02-24

Today was the turn of Ferrari to top the table, Carlos Sainz got a lap time of 1:29.9 in the afternoon session on the C4 compound tire, as more teams are using the testing day to push their packages as opposed to the data gathering and long runs of yesterday. It wasn't all good for Ferrari today as Charles Leclerc ran over a drain cover in turn 11 and knocked it loose. Both him and Lewis Hamilton drove over the manhole but only Charles suffered damage. His floor was severely damaged and needed to be replaced. Carlos Sainz had been standing trackside and saw the debris and was going to tell the marshalls a yellow flag was needed when Leclerc hit it. This led to the first red flag of 2024 and the session was stopped early. The afternoon session was extended by an hour so no time was lost.

The rest of the morning was quite uneventful. Sergio Perez had brake issues early on but that was fixed and he went back out on track. Logan Sargeant has finished his testing now and Alex Albon will be in the Williams all day tomorrow. George Russell and Max Verstappen also had no time on track today.

The afternoon session saw some procedural red flags and some rolling start practices. The drivers from the afternoon sessions seem to be making better times as the sun goes down and the track cools down. It makes for some amazing golden hour camera shots too. Last day of testing tomorrow so let's see what it brings.

 

~T~