LIVE: F1 Bahrain 2021 pre-season testing - Day 2
Live text commentary on the second day of 2021 Formula 1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit.
By: Jake Boxall-Legge, Tom Howard, James Newbold, Stephen Lickorish
Summary
Status: Stopped
And that's all from us today! We'll see you bright and early tomorrow for the final day of testing - bye for now.
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/
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.
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 gets up to P7 on that lap, logging his 130th tour of the Bahrain circuit with a 1m31.672s time.
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?
Perez doing a neat pitstop there, taking on new C2 tyres to carry on his running on the harder compounds. Proper race simulations now.
Best final sector for Bottas too, but definitely keeping a lid on things as he explores the limitations of the Mercedes.
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.
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
Bottas personal-bests with a 1m31.172s - so he's chipping away at things. Still on those C4s, just seeing how far they go.
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, whose Red Bull suddenly became naked on the straight, is back on track and on the C2 tyre. He's got the clothes and boots, all he wants is your motorcycle...
Bottas' time is a 1m31.633s on those C4 tyres, which isn't earth-shattering. Keeping their powder dry?
Giovinazzi's gone a little quicker with a 1m30.760s on C5s - but doesn't quite take enough of a bite out of Norris' advantage.
That time from Norris is the fastest of pre-season testing so far. For reference, it compares to the pole lap of 1m27.264s for last year's race.
As the track gets cooler into the night, the teams are finding it more representative of actual GP weekend conditions. So, they're pushing the boat out a bit...
Feb 4, 2023
