Follow the live coverage of Bahrain’s pre-season testing: Day 2

Local time. Subtract 2 hours for Europe.

10:00 am: 3 cars line up in front of the lights to begin their tests, including Alonso’s Aston Martin, which finished in second place yesterday.

Many teams use Pitot probes to test the correlation of air flow data between wind tunnel and CFD theories and real track conditions. These measurements are crucial to continue the development of a part or concept.

10:20 AM: All drivers have completed at least one warm-up lap. Some have returned to the track. Currently, there are only two cars: Magnussen and Zhou.

10:22AM: On the schedule this morning

– Perez pour Red Bull

– Sainz pour Ferrari

– Hamilton pour Mercedes

– Ocon pour Alpine

– Norris pour McLaren

– Zhou pour Alfa Roméo

– Alonso pour Aston Martin

– Magnussen pour Haas

– Tsunoda pour AlphaTauri

– Sargeant pour Williams.

This afternoon, instead of their teammate, they will be driving: Piastri, Russell, Gasly, De Vries, Leclerc, Verstappen, Hülkenberg. Alonso, Zhou, and Sargeant are the only ones completing the full day.

As a reminder, the testing program is busy with 8 hours and 30 minutes of driving per day.

10:30 am: The top 7 ranked

Après 30 minutes on a 7 pilotes classés #f1testing pic.twitter.com/snsLioF7YH

— Motors Inside F1 (@MotorsInside) February 24, 2023

12:05: After two hours of driving, the most active single-seaters on the track are Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, and AlphaTauri, with Tsunoda doing very long stints. Red Bull has been less active on the track so far compared to yesterday.

Le classement après deux heures de roulage #F1Testing #BahrainTesting pic.twitter.com/dZUYtx97FT

— Motors Inside F1 (@MotorsInside) February 24, 2023

12:08: Hamilton takes a quick lap, stirring up some dust. Overall, the drivers are not pushing yet and despite a few brake lock-ups, no risks are being taken for now.

13:05: Ranking after three hours of session. Tsunoda has already completed 70 trouble-free laps with his AlphaTauri. He is the most diligent on track.

Classement après trois heures sur quatre ce “matin” (il est 13h) #F1Testing #BahrainTesting pic.twitter.com/5hxdPGNe5o

— Motors Inside F1 (@MotorsInside) February 24, 2023

1:35 PM: There are 30 minutes left of this morning’s session. No red or yellow flags to report.

Il reste 30 min. Perez a fait un tres très long relais.
Il est remonté à hauteur de Tsunoda en nombre de tours parcourus. Fia-bi-li-té ! #f1testing pic.twitter.com/pcf7E86UH3

— Motors Inside F1 (@MotorsInside) February 24, 2023

13:56: Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) experiences a major wheel lock-up.

13:59: 🟨 The yellow flag is deployed with the VSC. Like yesterday, the objective is to test the system.

2:00 PM: 🟥 Red flag and session interrupted for a system test. Cars are waiting in the pitlane.

14:07: 🟢 Session restart for 8 minutes. Scheduled end at 14:15. The drivers will line up on the starting grid to test the standing start.

A complete departure procedure was tested. 7 drivers positioned themselves on the grid before waiting for the lights to start the warm-up lap. They then positioned themselves on the grid to simulate a start.

The lights turned on one by one, and as they went out, Magnussen, Sainz, and Hamilton launched simultaneously, while the other 4 cars remained stationary, thinking it was an individual starting procedure as sometimes possible at the end of free practice sessions. Incomprehension.

14:15: End of the “morning” session

15h: 🟢 Green flag but no one on track. Teams will resume around 15:15.

3:30 PM: Leclerc, Piastri, and De Vries are on the track. McLaren has applied more flowviz to assess its aerodynamic flow.

15:50: 7 drivers have replaced their teammate during the break. Verstappen, in particular, has taken over Perez’s seat in the Red Bull. He has already set the fastest time, beating Sainz by 6 tenths of a second.

5:10 pm: The ranking is changing, the cars are running a lot and are not encountering any reliability problems for the moment.

Classement à 17h10 #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/SVqsR9O6DS

— Motors Inside F1 (@MotorsInside) February 24, 2023

5:55 PM: 🟥 George Russell stops his Mercedes at turn 10. Gearbox or engine problem. No white smoke.

19:15: As for the end of the morning, the drivers on track have the opportunity to do a practice start. They will line up on the starting grid for a warm-up lap, and then position themselves on the starting grid for a standing start after the red lights go out. The session is then definitively over.

19:25: The final rankings of this second day, with only one retirement to report after nearly a hundred laps completed by the Mercedes today, is Russell’s at the end of the day.