Bahrain Tests 2 – Day 4 (morning): Bottas in Front, Hamilton and Vettel at a Standstill

At the start of the session, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso “battled” to set the fastest time. Ultimately, it was the Finn from Williams who was the only one to break the 1:35 barrier in a lap. He was therefore almost two seconds faster than his teammate Felipe Massa at the same time yesterday. This is clear evidence that for this last day of testing, the teams were beginning to want to exploit the full potential of their cars.

Nevertheless, at the same time, Mercedes had to deal with major issues with Lewis Hamilton’s gearbox. He was only able to complete five laps towards the end of the session. The men in gray were not the only ones facing problems this morning: once again, Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull stopped on track. The four-time world champion spun at the end of the straight, causing the first red flag of the day. When he exited his car, he triggered a fire extinguisher at the rear of his car. The second red flag was caused by Romain Grosjean, just a few minutes before the lunch break.

The record holder for laps today is Adrian Sutil, with 91 laps completed. Sauber decided to offer him an additional half-day of testing to make up for the fact that he was only able to complete one lap during yesterday’s session. The German will therefore hand over the wheel to his teammate, Esteban Gutierrez, during this afternoon’s session.