Max Verstappen picked up where he left off last year by putting his Red Bull on top of the times by over a second on the first day of testing.
The world champion was one of few drivers who participated in both of the day’s sessions. After the break he improved on his original best time to go comfortably fastest as the sim set at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Lando Norris was second-fastest for McLaren, with Carlos Sainz Jnr third-fastest in his new Ferrari. Both took over from their respective team mates after the first four hours of running.
Following the hour long lunch break, the second session of the day began at 3pm local time. While Verstappen and George Russell both remained in their cars, eight others joined in the action: Sainz, Norris, Lance Stroll, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, Daniel Ricciardo, Zhou Guanyu and Nico Hulkenberg.
The wind speed picked up significantly over the break and none of the ten teams hurried to join the track. Eventually, after almost ten minutes had elapsed, Sainz was the first driver on track for Ferrari.
It took until almost half-an-hour had elapsed for the next car to take to the track, that of Russell’s Mercedes, before Gasly drove out of garage for the first time soon after. There was little movement in the McLaren garage, however, as Norris was shown sat next to his stricken MCL38 while a flurry of mechanics worked over his car.
Eventually, Norris headed out for the first time with almost an hour of the four completed. Following a stoppage on track in the final 30 minutes of the earlier session for team mate Alexander Albon because of a fuel pump problem, Logan Sargeant eventually got out onto the track for two installation laps before returning to the pits.
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Around 90 minutes into the running, Sainz posted a 1’32.584 – the quickest time of the second session and within half a second of Verstappen’s best time of the day up to that point. Norris also moved to just over half a second off Verstappen’s benchmark, comfortably beating team mate Piastri’s personal best from the earlier session.
Just before the mid-point of the session, Norris improved to a 1’32.484 to become the fastest driver of the day up to that point, on the C3 compound tyre. Almost as if in response, Verstappen rejoined the track on C3 tyres of his own and reclaimed the top spot with a 1’31.662 – eight tenths faster than Norris and well over a second quicker than he posted over the…
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