After a stop-start day one of pre-season testing on Wednesday, the odd drops of rain did not curtail action on track on Thursday in Bahrain.
Lewis Hamilton was once again in the SF-25 Ferrari F1 challenger in the morning and, this time, alerted the attention of those watching with a string of table-topping laps, keeping old Mercedes teammate George Russell behind him.
Yet by the “chequered flag” after eight hours of testing, it was in fact the man he replaced who stood on top.
Carlos Sainz is not expecting podiums or wins at Williams this year but will be buoyed by his full day of driving in the desert, in which he set a time which beat Hamilton’s best by 0.031 seconds.
Here’s what happened on day two of F1 testing:
Hamilton shines for the prancing horse
Hamilton ended his morning session on top, completing 45 laps to take his weekly tally up to 115 – over two race distances around the Bahrain International Circuit.
And while teams and drivers will be following different run-plans with different fuel loads, it is certainly cause for optimism for the seven-time world champion.
Hamilton said: "I am really enjoying the car. We're slowly bonding. Yesterday was a so-so day, just OK. But we got through all our run-plan. I was not doing set-up changes or directing where I want the car to go.”
Ferrari’s usually understated team principal Fred Vasseur noted: “So far, so good.”
Hamilton did drop to second by the end of the day, while his teammate Charles Leclerc finished third overall, trailing the Brit by just 0.052 seconds.
Another solid session for Hamilton, on the same day it was announced he was the cover star for TIME for next month’s edition, posing in a striking photo alongside a stallion called Aroma.
Sainz makes a statement
Sainz was labelled the unluckiest man on the grid when he made way for Hamilton at Ferrari this year, while an option to move to Red Bull and Mercedes never materialised.
As such, he opted for a long-term project with James Vowles’s Williams and was in the car all day on Thursday.
Racking up an impressive 127 laps, the Spaniard – who has won four grands prix – set the fastest time of the day at 1:29:348.
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Patchy for Red Bull rookie
TOP-10 - DAY 2, F1 TESTING
1. Carlos Sainz - 1:29:348 (127 laps)
2. Lewis Hamilton - +0.031 (45)
3. Charles Leclerc - +0.083 (83)
4. George Russell - +0.430 (71)
5. Kimi Antonelli - +0.436 (87)
6. Lance Stroll - +0.881 (57)
7. Liam Lawson - +0.904 (91)
8. Jack Doohan - +1.020 (80)
9. Pierre Gasly - +1.082 (40)
10. Isack Hadjar - +1.327 (94)
Not the smoothest day for Red Bull or their new driver Liam Lawson.
The New Zealander, who has raced 11 times over two years for the sister team, endured regular breaks in the garage and managed just 91 laps.
No concerns, outwardly, at Red Bull. But as Max Verstappen receives the preferential treatment and takes to the cockpit for the whole of Friday testing, Lawson heads to Australia in a fortnight’s time with perhaps a murkier picture of where the RB21 is than what he’d have wanted.
Boos? What boos?
It was Max Verstappen’s turn in the press conference room on Thursday. Cue the obvious question: were you bothered about being jeered at F1 75 Live in London last week?
“There was any booing?” he said. “Maybe I'm deaf! I don't really need to talk about it, it's not worth my time."
He’s right too. As Christian Horner noted on Wednesday, the reaction would have been quite different if the launch was in the Netherlands. Of course, Verstappen is not “Mr Popular” in the UK having denied Hamilton and Lando Norris world titles in recent years.
Such rivalries, whether nationalistic in nature or not, are the cornerstone of the sport. Despite what the FIA may say, no issues to see here.
