Pierre Gasly was fastest on the opening day of the second test at Bahrain International Circuit. The Alpha Tauri driver set a 33.902 on the C5 compound of tyre putting him four and a half tenths ahead of the two Ferraris, with Carlos Sainz going a quarter of a second faster than teammate Charles Leclerc.
Gasly’s fastest lap came in the cooler conditions on the C5 tyre, putting him half a second faster. Any late challengers to that time wouldn’t materialise after Sergio Perez brought out the second red flag of the day, at reduced speeds the Mexican lost the rear of his RB18 at the exit of Turn 8.
The car then appeared to roll backwards slowly before the rear axle dropped off the edge of the run-off and into a gravel trap, where Perez became beached and the session was ended.
The two Ferrari’s looked to continue to be at the front this season, with their expected rivals Red Bull and Mercedes being at the lower end of the top ten, although Mercedes looked to be a lot better than at the first test in Barcelona. Leclerc had set the pace during the first session, while Gasly was the first out on track in Sakhir.
Ferrari has been one of the talking points this season, they continued with their consistency and Leclerc lead most of the day. That was until his teammate Sainz and the Alpha Tauri went six-tenths faster.
Lance Stroll putting his Aston Martin fourth just over two tenths behind the two Ferrari’s going two tenths faster than the Williams of Alex Albon. Stroll had caused a red flag forty-five minutes into the session, when one of the rakes had detected from the car.
However, Stroll showed what might be possible with the regulation change, there was a bit of racing as he ran close to the Alpine of Fernando Alonso. Albon was unable to improve in the afternoon, but he managed over a hundred laps but also reported a steering that truncated running while the hydraulics were checked.
Gasly’s fastest time means all four days of pre-season testing so far have been topped by different teams – Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes and Alpha Tauri. But while it’s wise to be hesitant about installing favourites at this point in the season, there’s little doubt over which team has caught the eye, Ferrari.
Although, Ferrari have been reluctant to see themselves in the mix or the favourites the encouraging start to the year are promising.
Hamilton drove the morning session for Mercedes in a heavily revised car featuring near non-existent sidepods. He established the early first place benchmark at 41.502 on the C2 hard compound, but that time was quickly worked down as the field reached representative times at the end of the opening half an hour. The Englishman ended his day eleventh fastest overall.
Mercedes having a normal quiet day ticking off the laps completing a hundred and twenty-two laps between Russell and Hamilton.
However the updates to the Mercedes have been described as illegal, they brought what has been described as the “no side-pod car” because of the extreme way the world champions have managed to shrink the bodywork beside the driver around the car’s cooling requirements.
F1 motorsport and technical managing director and former team principal Ross Brawn, told BBC News “Once the interpretation Mercedes has made has been understood, then we can get a balanced view on what impact it’s going to have.”
“’Spirit’ [of the rules] is such a grey area. At the end of the day, you have to go on the wording of the regulations. But that wording can be changed with an 80% team majority.”
Lando Norris put his McLaren sixth fastest going almost three tenths faster than the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas. Sebastian Vettel put his Aston Martin eighth going two tenths faster than George Russell, who struggled with the car bottoming out.
Russell said, “At the moment Ferrari look the strongest. In every low fuel run, consecutive laps, they look very, very solid.”
Max Verstappen added “They look strong. Very solid, just very decent. They’re quick, you can clearly see that in the long run and short-run and I think that’s also good for Formula 1.”
Red Bull’s focus appeared to be on the long runs and data gathering, Perez finished the day tenth. However, his spin in the closing minutes of the session, brought the red flag out and that ended the days track running. Perez, however split the two Mercedes going four tenths faster than Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso put his Alpine twelfth fastest going just over two hundredths faster than his teammate Esteban Ocon. Guanyu Zuho put his Alfa Romeo fourteenth going three and a half tenths faster than Pietro Fittipaldi.
