F1 Bahrain 2021 pre-season testing - Day 2
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By: Jake Boxall-Legge, Tom Howard, James Newbold, Stephen Lickorish
Stopped
Checkered flag
And that's all from us today! We'll see you bright and early tomorrow for the final day of testing - bye for now.
Breaking news
Here's the day 2 report from Bahrain: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/bottas-returns-mercedes-to-the-top-on-second-day-of-bahrain-f1-test/5713331/
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Bottas on top, then - beating Gasly by 0.124s. Stroll third with a 1m30.460s, beating Norris by a tenth.
We will have some time allotted for practice starts - but that's it for the session. Testing is two-thirds complete here at Bahrain.
Red flag
Oh, hello red flag.
Pitstop gaffes aside, 162 laps for Haas today - not a bad innings.
Eep - the green light went on in the Haas pitbox, but the jackman wasn't quite out of the way! Schumacher almost took the jack with him...
Latifi did his P7 laptime on the C4s, Leclerc 0.8s quicker on the C5s.
Photo
Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me...
Stopwatch
Leclerc also goes a smidgen faster, posting a 1m30.886s on one of the two softer compounds.
Stopwatch
Latifi gets up to P7 on that lap, logging his 130th tour of the Bahrain circuit with a 1m31.672s time.
We've got 16 minutes remaining.
Pit stop
Alonso does a pitstop, collecting a used set of C2 tyres and heading off on his way. Perez does the same thing moments later. They emerge in P...sorry, this isn't a race is it?
Stopwatch
Bottas goes fastest with a 1m30.289s on C5 tyres. gg guys, gl next year.
Pit stop
Perez doing a neat pitstop there, taking on new C2 tyres to carry on his running on the harder compounds. Proper race simulations now.
Stopwatch
Leclerc went fastest in sector 1, but remains sixth overall with a 1m30.903s on his C4 tyres.
Stroll's gone up to fourth, logging a 1m30.693s on his 64th lap of the day.
Gasly on the C3 tyres returns to the circuit, adding to his 75 laps so far.
Best final sector for Bottas too, but definitely keeping a lid on things as he explores the limitations of the Mercedes.
Stopwatch
It's a 1m30.460s, half a tenth down on Gasly in P1.
Bottas is blowing hot and cold at the moment, running on a C5. A few purple bits on the timing screen, bits of green, but mainly grey to signify no improvement...
Gasly switches helmets, going for a slightly more orange visor to help reduce some of the glare from the lights.
Stopwatch
There's Leclerc with a lap that takes him up to P4, clocking in a 1m31.135s on C4 tyres.
With just under 40 minutes to go in day two of testing, here's how many laps each team has managed.
1. Haas 144
2. AlphaTauri 129
3. Williams 124
4. Ferrari 118
5. Alfa Romeo 116
6. Alpine 115
7. Mercedes 105
8. Red Bull 101
9. McLaren 85
10. Aston Martin 69
1. Haas 144
2. AlphaTauri 129
3. Williams 124
4. Ferrari 118
5. Alfa Romeo 116
6. Alpine 115
7. Mercedes 105
8. Red Bull 101
9. McLaren 85
10. Aston Martin 69
105 laps for Mercedes so far today - a much better run compared to yesterday's dismal 48.
Stopwatch
Bottas personal-bests with a 1m31.172s - so he's chipping away at things. Still on those C4s, just seeing how far they go.
That Aston Martin does look very good under the lights, it must be said. It just looks right.
Stroll encounters traffic on his run with C3 tyres, getting baulked by Alonso and Schumacher down at Turn 9. A little hand gesture from Lance, there, in response...
Perez is due to start his 100th lap soon too, assuming he continues on his hard-tyre run.