Ferrari leads second day of testing as Sainz tops afternoon stint

The Scuderia Ferrari drivers have topped the second day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Morning session

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the morning session, but he was affected by a loose drain cover that caused damage -although nothing too serious- to his SF-24.

The whole situation prompted a red flag, and the session was finalized earlier than expected. However, an additional hour of time was added to the afternoon stint.

Sergio Perez didn’t follow his teammate’s footsteps and placed 4th fastest, more than a second behind Leclerc. However, as this is pre-season and we don’t exactly know the profile of tests the team ran during the session, we can’t take those results as a true representation of what’s to come when lights go out at the Bahrain Grand Prix next week.

Further back, Yuki Tsunoda focused on long runs and achieved consistent timings accross the board.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton also worked on race pace simulations.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time
1	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:31.750
2	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+0.578
3	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+0.828
4	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+1.129
5	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+1.303
6	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+1.475
7	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	+1.965
8	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+2.054
9	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+5.759
10	Yuki Tsunoda	RB F1 Team	+6.324

Afternoon session

The day was for Ferrari to lead the timing charts as Carlos Sainz topped the afternoon stint with a time of 1:29.921, but he did so in the C4 compound tire, used also by Williams’ Logan Sargeant and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo.

The Spaniard said that his SF-24 is a “more driveable car,” and that the team’s objectives are “focused on the long runs” and not so much on finding more performance.

McLaren’s Lando Norris managed consistent runs across the board and finished +1.335s (C3) behind Sainz, in P4.

Hamilton improved on his morning runs and finished higher up in the overall standings, just +1.145s (C3) behind Pérez, who placed second overall by less than a second to Sainz.

Pre-season testing resumes on Friday at 8 AM CET.

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Tire
1	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1:29.921	C4
2	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	+0.763	C3
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+1.145	C3
4	Lando Norris	McLaren	+1.335	C3
5	Daniel Ricciardo	RB F1	+1.440	C4
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+1.829	C3
7	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+2.108	C3
8	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+2.140	C3
9	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber	+2.306	C3
10	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+2.407	C3
11	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+2.657	C4
12	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+3.132	C3
13	Guanyu Zhou	Sauber	+3.794	C3
14	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+3.883	C3
15	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+6.690	C3
16	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+7.588	C3
17	Yuki Tsunoda	RB F1	+8.153	C3