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F1 Bahrain pre-season test - Day 2
Minute by minute updates on the second day of the 2023 F1 Bahrain pre-season test
After Max Verstappen topped yesterday's opening day of running for Red Bull, on-track action resumes from 07:00 GMT (10:00 local time).
All three days follow the same schedule, with running taking place from 10:00 until 14:15, and from 15:15 until 19:30 (all local time), pausing for a lunch break.
All 10 teams are set to be in action for the Bahrain pre-season test, the only opportunity teams will have to properly put their cars through their paces before the 2023 season proper gets underway next weekend.
More: F1 Bahrain test driver line-up
The Bahrain pre-season test will take place on 23-25 February ahead of the 2023 F1 season opener at the same venue, the Bahrain Grand Prix, on 3-5 March.
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By: Haydn Cobb, James Newbold, Lewis Duncan, Megan White, Stephen Lickorish
Stopped
That's all for today. The final day of testing will get underway tomorrow from 7am GMT. We'll be live with you from 6:45am GMT. See you then!
Alfa Romeo headed day two of F1 pre-season testing in Bahrain as Mercedes suffered a stoppage with Russell:
https://autosport.com/all/news/2023-f1-bahrain-test-zhou-fastest-from-verstappen-as-mercedes-hits-trouble-/10436069/
https://autosport.com/all/news/2023-f1-bahrain-test-zhou-fastest-from-verstappen-as-mercedes-hits-trouble-/10436069/
Checkered flag
And that is day two of testing officially done! Zhou heads Verstappen, Alonso, De Vries, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Sargeant, Leclerc, Piastri, Gasly, Magnussen, Ocon, Russell, Perez, Hamilton, Norris and Tsunoda.
No troubles for the six cars who took part in that practice start. Red flag procedure is being practiced again now.
The cars will go around for an extra formation lap now and do a start.
The first part of the practice start procedure is testing out what happens if there is an aborted start, signified by a set of flashing yellow lights lining the pitwall.
The red flag has been cleared, so those who can will head out for some practice starts.
Zhou appeared to have a clutch issue when he went to do a practice start at the end of pitlane. At Williams, Sargeant's car has been chained off even though the car is being shown as not live. Possibly a practice of the protocol for when there is an electrical systems issue.
Red flag
Session has now been red-flagged, but - again - this is all part of the systems test.
But the car has now been wheeled away, so everything appears to be ok at Williams now.
At Williams, the mechanics are huddled around Sargeant's car wearing yellow gloves suggesting there is some sort of electrical problem.
Not all plain sailing for Alfa, though, as Zhou has stopped at the end of pitlane and is being wheeled back to his garage.
With that, Zhou and Alfa Romeo will end day two of the Bahrain test fastest of all.
Yellow flag
And there is the yellow flag, which will quickly become a VSC and then a red flag.
There is just 21 minutes of running left, but realistically only six before the race direction system checks get underway in the final 15 minutes before the chequered flag.
Standing next to Bottas in pitlane is new Alfa boss Andreas Seidl who - from certain angles - looks a lot like our head of podcasts Martyn Lee!
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Zhou goes fastest overall in the Alfa Romeo with a 1m31.610s on the soft tyre. Bottas still doesn't give anything away as to how he feels about that.
Leclerc is out on the C1 hard tyre as he begins a run.
We're currently watching world champion Verstappen, though he's on a high fuel run right now as his latest effort was 6.3s off his best lap.
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Zhou leaps up to third in the Alfa Romeo with a 1m32.214s. Bottas and his questionable new hairstyle watches on, giving nothing away as to how he might have felt about that.
Zhou is out there on the soft tyre and is on a push lap.
Mercedes' evening is also done after a hydraulics issue forced Russell to stop on track earlier.
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Alonso moves up to second in the Aston Martin with a 1m32.205s running the C3 tyre.
Believe it or not, 2023 marks 10 years since F1's final year of the V8 naturally aspirated engines. In fact, everything in the attached picture is no longer present on the F1 grid: V8s, narrow cars, Kimi Raikkonen and the Lotus name!
Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus E21 Renault
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
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De Vries has gone a bit quicker with a 1m32.222s in second to close the gap to Verstappen to 0.572s.
In theory, we should see some more soft tyre laps in the final hour now conditions are much more representative.
With under an hour to go, Verstappen continues to lead the session from De Vries, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Sargeant, Leclerc, Zhou, Piastri and Gasly.
With that change in the leaderboard, it's time for a change on the live comms rota too, as Lewis Duncan will now guide you through the final hour of track action today.
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De Vries is on the very softest of Pirelli's range, the C5, and becomes the fourth driver to set a 1m32.4s and displaces Alonso in second. But we know the other cars in that ballpark used harder rubber.
In fact, we've now got so many cars on track, de Vries and Zhou are fighting for the same bit of track! The Alfa has a brief look at passing the AlphaTauri but, in the end, decides to drop back.
As we head into this optimal running time, all the cars - aside from the stricken Mercedes - are now out on track.
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Alonso is also on a charge now and joins the group of drivers on 1m32.4s times as he moves to second on the leaderboard. So we've now got the same top two as we had yesterday.
Breaking news
Williams leads the lap count chart again today and its new team boss James Vowles told the media earlier that his priority is to implement a new technical staff structure: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/vowles-new-f1-technical-structure-priority-for-williams/10435978/
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