Mercedes and George Russell picked up right where they left off last week and topped the first day back at Bahrain for the second stint of pre-season testing.
Morning Session
During the morning session, it was Ferrari and Charles Leclerc who dominated the timesheets with an impressive 1:33.739 ahead of Norris and Antonelli.
It was a great session for most of the teams, especially for the Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad, who did an impressive 75 laps during the session. However, for Red Bull, Aston Martin, and Cadillac, it was a challenging morning. They were kept off track during the morning session.
Newcomer Cadillac was kept in the garages well into the session due to the sensor issue, and only managed 24 laps during the morning session.
Isack Hadjar was scheduled to drive the whole day today. However, Red Bull missed most of the morning session due to a coolant and water system issue. This meant that the Frenchman only managed 13 laps his morning stint.
Last week’s troubles continue for Aston Martin. They were struck with another power unit issue, allowing Fernando Alonso only 28 laps of track time.
Afternoon Session
The afternoon session was off to a quiet start, but not for long. With his Aston Martin having yet another issue, Lance Stroll brought out a red flag after a spinning at Turn 11 and ending up in the gravel trap. He later returned to the track to gain valuable mileage after AMR26 missed part of the morning session due to issues with their Honda power unit. Despite the issues and only managing 54 laps between the drivers, Aston Martin was able to find some speed. Stroll was able to go 2 seconds faster than last week’s best times for the team.
Session resumed promptly once the AMR26 was recovered. Cars quickly took to the track with Piastri going fastest during the golden hour with an impressive 1:33.469.
This was later topped by George Russell in the Mercedes, who went quickest with the 1:33.459. This came after having a lockup and going off the track on the previous lap. Russel also had the overall highest lap count of 77 laps. That brought the Mercedes total for the day to 145 laps.
Despite an impressive run in the morning, the afternoon wasn’t so smooth for Ferrari with Hamilton barely making it back onto the track during the powerhour due to the technical issues.
As the powerhour came to a close, the session also saw a test of the potential new starting procedure to address the stalling during the practice starts and account for the fact that the new power units require more time during the start procedure.
Two More Days of Testing
With two more days of testing ahead, teams will be back on track tomorrow. Many will focus on finding speed and putting in the mileage while gathering as much data as possible ahead of the Australian GP in March.
Feature image courtesy of Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team