Lewis Hamilton went fastest in the second morning of Formula 1’s pre-season test in Bahrain, which became increasingly quiet as the rare appearance of rain scuppered much of the running.
Hamilton became the first driver of the test to break into the 1m29s – setting a 1m29.670s - ahead of the final hour of the morning session, following the earlier hiatus due to the onset of rain.
Track conditions had improved enough for Hamilton to beat his 1m30.080s before the intensifying rain hit, and the newly minted Ferrari driver then went three tenths quicker to log a 1m29.379s.
A trickle of early running permeated through the morning’s initial stages as teams sought to gather information with an assortment of aerodynamic measuring devices, before switching to more representative runs.
Nearly an hour of limited on-track running went begging as rain began to fall; early drizzle had been upgraded in intensity, leading to both Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz having wide moments at Turn 11 as both were met with snaps of oversteer.
Only two teams had prepared for any surprise climatic changes with an allocation of intermediate tyres – Aston Martin and Haas. This effectively kept the field in the garages, although Haas broke the silence by sending Esteban Ocon out on the green-walled tyre.
Ocon circulated and used the opportunity to gather experience of a damp-track start on the pitlane apron, but the team’s sole set of inters was ultimately used briefly.
George Russell encouraged more to join him on track when he eventually resumed slick tyre running with conditions evidently much better, although he and Nico Hulkenberg sustained a few slides in their exploratory tours of the Bahrain circuit.
But, as shown by Hamilton’s growth in speed – and Russell having briefly got close to him with a 1m29.778s to go second fastest - the circuit was considerably riper for longer runs.
This was Sainz’s focus, after the Williams driver got up to third in the times on a set of C2 tyres before transitioning to what was supposed to be a grand prix-length long run. The Spaniard’s efforts here were interrupted by the rain, and thus he is expected to try again in the afternoon session.
Pierre Gasly was fourth fastest over Fernando Alonso, who spent the early stages of the session circulating on the C1 tyre before switching to mediums following the rain.
After spending the opening two hours doing aero correlation work, Yuki Tsunoda was afforded more performance-based runs over the final half of the session and got to within a tenth of Alonso’s final time for the morning.
Piastri was seventh after limited running in the opening phases of the morning, which left him without a representative lap for some time – and his attempt to set one ended with that rain-enforced slide at Turn 11.
Liam Lawson’s session ended early with a water pressure issue on his Red Bull, and he set a session low of 28 laps – 43 shy of Russell’s 71-lap total from the morning. Hulkenberg and Ocon completed the order.
