Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the fastest time in Bahrain on the second morning of Formula 1 2023 pre-season testing, holding off Williams rookie Logan Sargent.
On a warm Friday morning, Haas’ Kevin Magnussen led the opening run with the first rep time, 1m33.710s on Pirelli’s intermediate C3 compound.
Sainz then took the lead with a 1m32.653s effort, which he later improved to 1m32.486s in his C3-shot Ferrari.
The Spaniard improved by four-tenths on Max Verstappen’s Thursday benchmark, with Ferrari continuing to top the top speed rankings.
Sainz’s compatriot Fernando Alonso soon joined him at the front after the Aston Martin driver recorded 1m33.278s and 1m33.182s at the same venue.
4h15 Halfway through the morning session, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu split the Spaniards to second with a lap of 1m33.170s.
After disappearing into the garage for an hour to work on the front end, Alonso returned to reclaim the spot in the C2s with a 1m32.969s.
Joe’s morning was also a mixed bag, with the Chinese driver disappearing in the garage for a long time, which restricted him to 43 laps.
Freshman Sgt was the last of the 10 morning runners as the American continued to get used to the Williams FW45.
In the final hour, he gradually moved up to second with 1m 32.968s, then clocked 1m 32.549s to within 0.063s of Chainz’s benchmark.
Behind Alonso and Chow, Magnussen finished fifth, the last driver Haas man to stay within a second of the leader, followed by Alpine’s Esteban Ocon.
Friday morning marked the first appearance of Sergio Perez, as only Red Bull did not split between its two drivers on Thursday.
Like team-mate Verstappen on Thursday, Perez put in plenty of testing material in a productive morning on his 2023 Test debut. The Mexican completed 76 laps, in which he was seventh.
Lewis Hamilton had a low-key session for Mercedes, with team principal Toto Wolff eighth, admitting his W14 car was “out of balance” in the unrepresentative morning heat of the overnight Bahrain Grand Prix. Eligibility and Race.
The seven-time world champion returned to the garage for some minor repairs after being one of several cars to have bodywork removed.
Lando Norris was ninth for McLaren, far behind the other runners.
Yuki Tsunoda was the productivity king on Friday morning, logging a whopping 85 laps as he finished bottom of the timesheets.
The trouble-free session allowed the teams to get plenty of mileage and helped Pirelli develop the C3 prototypes.
There was only one stop at the end: a virtual safety car followed by a brief red flag for a systems test by race control.
This led to a pair of exercises, beginning to end the session. At the second start, Norris provided some minor excitement as he overtook Sainz to avoid hitting the McLaren.
After a one-hour meal break, testing resumes at 15:15 local Bahrain time.
| Pose | driver | Car | Time | interval | lap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari SF-23 | 1’32.486 | 70 | |
| 2 | Logan Sgt | Williams FW45 | 1’32.549 | 0.063 | 74 |
| 3 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin AMR23 | 1’32.969 | 0.483 | 64 |
| 4 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo C43 | 1’33.170 | 0.684 | 43 |
| 5 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas VF-23 | 1’33.442 | 0.956 | 67 |
| 6 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine A523 | 1’33.490 | 1.004 | 49 |
| 7 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull RB19 | 1’33.751 | 1.265 | 76 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes F1 W14 E Performance | 1’33.954 | 1.468 | 72 |
| 9 | Lando Norris | McLaren MCL60 | 1’35.522 | 3.036 | 65 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri AT04 | 1’35.708 | 3.222 | 85 |
