Zhou zooms to the top at Bahrain International Circuit!
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Zhou Guanyu enjoyed a remarkable second day of Formula 1 Aramco Pre-Season Testing 2023 yesterday at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir, topping the timesheet with a narrow four-hundredths-of-a-second gap ahead of double F1 world champion Max Verstappen.
Zhou steered his Alfa Romeo C43 contender to an ultra-quick lap time of one minute 31.610 seconds around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track. His mark was set during his afternoon run and was the day’s best overall.
Testing concludes today with one final full day of running at BIC. The morning session will be from 10am to 2.15pm and the afternoon from 3.15pm to 7.30pm.
BIC will be welcoming fans again today. Those who are eager to get a glimpse of the 2023 cars in action can purchase their tickets at BD5 apiece, with tickets for kids aged three to 12 at BD2.5 each.
Tickets will be available at the gate, at bahraingp.com, or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973- 17450000. Those who bought their F1 tickets before 1 February have free access to testing. Gates will be open from midday to 7pm to fans.
All those attending the F1 pre-season tests will be able to follow the action from BIC’s Main Grandstand, which overlooks the F1 Pit Lane, the teams’ garages and the circuit’s main straight.
Zhou was one of three drivers who took to the track the entire day for their respective teams, completing a total of 133 laps. He finished 0.040 seconds clear of Verstappen on the second day’s final classification, with the Red Bull Racing ace covering 47 laps during the afternoon session in his RB19.
Zhou’s day two best was more than a second quicker than the pace-setting fastest lap of Verstappen during the first day of tests. The red flags came out briefly yesterday evening after George Russell’s Mercedes F1 W14 stopped on track and had to be lifted off.
Fernando Alonso finished third overall for Aston Martin, 0.595s off Zhou’s leading pace. He too tested the whole day and completed 130 laps in his AMR23 challenger. Nyck de Vries for AlphaTauri was fourth 0.612s from first in his AT04 car, while Nico Hulkenberg finished fifth for Haas with a lap 0.856s behind Zhou’s in the VF-23.
Carlos Sainz powered Ferrari’s SF-23 to sixth on the times with a lap 0.876s off the pace. Sainz’s quickest time was the best from the morning session, where he completed 70 laps. Williams rookie Logan Sargeant followed 0.939s back while registering the most number of laps for the day with 154 in his FW45 challenger, while Leclerc completed the top eight in the second Ferrari 1.115s adrift.
Oscar Piastri was ninth after going 1.565s behind Zhou during the afternoon in McLaren’s MCL60, and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10 for Alpine 1.576s from the top in his A523. The rest of the final classification from 11th to 17th, respectively, on day two featured Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Russel for Mercedes, Sergio Perez for Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton in the other Mercedes, Lando Norris in the second McLaren and Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri.
On the final day of pre-season testing today, Perez is scheduled to be the lone driver for Red Bull the whole day, as are Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo and Alexander Albon for Williams. Leclerc will test in the morning for Ferrari before making way for Sainz, while also sharing the duties are Russell and Hamilton for Mercedes, Gasly and Ocon for Alpine, Piastri and Norris for McLaren, Hulkenberg and Magnussen for Haas, and de Vries and Tsunoda for AlphaTauri.
Lewis Hamilton tests in his Mercedes in the morning
Williams’s rookie Logan Sargeant in his car at the end of yesterday’s testing
George Russell gets ready to get out on track
Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg on track as the sun sets at BIC
Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari during testing yesterday
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