Sainz puts Ferrari on top in second day of Bahrain F1 tests

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Carlos Sainz maintained his impressive form in Formula 1 Aramco Pre-Season Testing 2022 yesterday on the second day of running at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

After finishing second on the combined timesheet on day one, the Ferrari driver this time steered his F1-75 challenger to first place with a best lap of one minute 33.532 seconds.

Following the tests, Sainz commented: “A bit of a strange afternoon with track conditions changing a lot from run to run, especially the strong wind which made it difficult to be consistent on the short runs and to get a good understanding of each compound and how they compared to one another.

“We will analyse everything tonight and prepare a good run plan for tomorrow, as there are quite a few things I still want to test on the last day. “In general, another positive day for the team.” The Bahrain tests are now headed for a third and final day of running today at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

It will be the last opportunity for the F1 teams to evaluate their revolutionised 2022 cars ahead of the start of the 2022 FIA F1 World Championship in Bahrain next weekend at the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix from 18 to 20 March.

BIC welcomed the general public yesterday to enjoy the testing action. Today’s runs are also open to fans, and BIC will be opening its doors from 12noon until 7pm. Those who had purchased their tickets to the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022 before 1 March have free access to the tests.

For those without F1 tickets bought before 1 March, tickets to pre-season testing are available to purchase online at bahraingp.com, at the gate and at the BIC stand at City Centre Bahrain.

They are priced at BD5 per day for adults and BD2.5 for children aged three to 12 years old. Fans are able to watch the tests from BIC’s Main Grandstand, which overlooks the F1 Pit Lane, the teams’ garages and the main straight.

There is no seating allocation so fans are advised to get to BIC early to get the best seats. Sainz clocked his best lap of the day during the cooler evening session, after taking over for teammate Charles Leclerc who tested in the morning under much warmer conditions.

He completed 60 laps on the day, while Leclerc, whose best time was 1:34.366 which was good enough for sixth overall, had 54 laps. Sainz’s lap was the only time to go below the 1:34.000 mark on day two, and it was quicker than Pierre Gasly’s best time that kicked off the tests on the first day of running.

Defending F1 drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen was second on the combined timesheet for Red Bull Racing. He had a fastest lap of 1:34.011, also clocked in the evening, as he completed 86 laps over the course of the day behind the wheel of the RB18.

Lance Stroll was third-quickest for Aston Martin, steering his AMR22 to a best lap of 1:34.064 in 70 laps of work yesterday evening. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was classified fourth for Mercedes in his F1 W13 car with a best mark of 1:34.141 during his 47-lap evening run.

Hamilton had taken over for teammate George Russell, who tested in the morning and clocked a best lap of 1:38.585 for 13th place overall.

In fifth was Esteban Ocon for Alpine, whose 1:34.276 topped the morning session. He comleted 111 laps for the full day’s testing in his A522 challenger. Classified behind Leclerc in seventh was Lando Norris, who continued to test for another full day in the McLaren MCL36 as teammate Daniel Ricciardo had fallen ill since arriving in Bahrain.

The team announced that Ricciardo has taken several precautionary COVID-19 tests which have all been negative. Norris had a best lap of 1:34.609 in 60 laps of work.

Sebastian Vettel in the other Aston Martin AMR22 completed the top eight for day two with a best lap of 1:36.020. He had a total of 46 laps during morning testing. Kevin Magnussen had his first on-track session for Haas yesterday since being announced as the team’s second 2022 driver on Wednesday.

He marked his return with a best lap of 1:36.505 with 39 laps completed at the end of the day’s running for all the teams. Haas, however, were granted permission to run slightly longer sessions to make up for the time they lost on day one due to freight delays that were out of their control.

The team could not run in the morning session on Thursday, and thus, yesterday, Magnussen had been given an hour extra in the car during the evening tests. Today, Magnussen will begin testing an hour earlier at 9am before the rest of the F1 field joins in, and then in the evening, teammate Mick Schumacher will get an additional two hours to test until 9pm.

The others will wrap up testing at 7pm. Completing the top 10 in yesterday’s tests was Yuki Tsuonda with a best lap of 1:36.802 for AlphaTauri. He had the most laps amongst all drivers for the day of 120 in his AT03 car.

Rounding off the day two classification from 11th to 15th, respectively, were Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas (1:36.987), Schumacher (1:37.846), Russell, Williams’s Nicholas Latifi (1:39.845) and rookie Guanyu Zhou (1:39.984) in the other Alfa Romeo contender.

Nearly two hours into the morning session, testing was red-flagged after the brakes on Latifi’s Williams caught fire. He stopped out on track and the marshals were quick to respond and put the fire out. He wasn’t able to return for the rest of the day’s running.

The day’s second session also had a number of red flags, after on-track stoppages by Ocon and Norris, while another was for a test by Race Control to check that the red flag procedures work.