Day 2 of pre-season testing has come to a close, and one Mercedes driver found himself atop the timesheets.
Valtteri Bottas completed the fastest lap by the end of today’s testing run at 1:30.289 on the C5 tyres.
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly followed closely behind Bottas, just +0.124 off the pace on the same C5’s, while his new teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, finished 11th after running in the morning session for 57 laps.
Saturday in Sakhir ✅ 116 laps for W12 and the boys
Pleased with that. 👊 pic.twitter.com/pOLtpMazZ4
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 13, 2021
Hamilton finished 15th fastest after a backward spin at Turn 13 brought about a red flag earlier this morning – the team continue to work through a number of issues with the W12.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished third while his teammate Sebastian Vettel ended the day at the bottom of the charts, managing to complete just 10 laps due to a gearbox issue this morning.
Ending the day P3? Don't mind if we do! 💚@lance_stroll finishes with a fastest time of 1:30.460 and a total of 71 laps. #F1Testing pic.twitter.com/1SbOr2kz8A
— Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) March 13, 2021
After some time at the top of the timesheets, McLaren’s Lando Norris finished out the day in fourth on soft C4 Pirelli’s, while Daniel Ricciardo finished ninth overall after leading the morning session, marking another impressive day for the Woking-based team.
Finishing fifth was Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, who ran 125 laps, landing his position on the favoured C5 compound.
Another positive day 👌🏻
P5 and 124 laps in the bag 🎒 pic.twitter.com/eIaXmjNfg6— Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN (@alfaromeoracing) March 13, 2021
Charles Leclerc was in P6 on the same tyre as Giovinazzi after jumping behind the wheel of the SF21 for the afternoon session completing 73 laps.
His teammate Carlos Sainz, however, landed in P13 this afternoon after running 56 laps.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi finished in seventh, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who was on the hard tyres for his fastest lap this afternoon.
Alonso managed to finish 10th overall by the end of the day, meanwhile, Haas’ Nikita Mazepin finished 14th, behind teammate Mick Schumacher who ended the day in 12th.
The final day of testing will kick off on Sunday morning (March 14) at 6:50 am Irish time.
