SAKHIR, Bahrain — Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu topped the second day of preseason testing in Bahrain, beating world champion Max Verstappen to the fastest time by 0.040s.
Zhou’s presence at the top of the timesheets served as a reminder of how difficult it is to read into the competitive order at testing due to the huge amount of variables that dictate each lap time.
While Alfa Romeo’s pace has looked respectable throughout the two days of testing, Red Bull remain the clear favourites after two days of testing and no driver has clocked a time within a second of last year’s pole position lap for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Verstappen had held the fastest time for the vast majority of the afternoon after setting his lap time — a 1:31.650 — early in the afternoon on the C3 compound tyre.
By comparison, Zhou set his time on the softest tyre compound in Pirelli’s range, the C5, and once the sun had set, which results in cooler and faster track conditions.
Aside from those clear variables, the fuel loads and engine modes of the two drivers were unknown and likely contributed to help explain Zhou’s relatively strong showing.
Perhaps more impressive and more ominous for Red Bull’s rivals was the world champions’ ability to complete a race simulation in the morning session with Sergio Perez.
Teams attempt to simulate race conditions in testing in order to understand how the car will fare over a full grand prix distance, but the practice is usually reserved for when the team has a solid understanding of its car.
AlphaTauri also completed a race simulation on the second morning with Yuki Tsunoda, while Zhou and Williams’ Logan Sargeant completed one in the afternoon.
Ferrari, which is so far emerging as Red Bull’s closest competition this year, also appeared to attempt a race simulation in the afternoon session with Charles Leclerc, but the run was interrupted by George Russell’s Mercedes stopping on track.
Leclerc finished the day eighth fastest, with teammate Carlos Sainz setting the sixth fastest time in the morning session.
“Obviously we are not showing everything as it’s only testing, but that is why it’s very, very important for us to focus on ourselves and no teams will really show potential here,” Leclerc said. “So we’ll just focus on ourselves, try and get the best feeling from these three test days and be as ready as possible for next week.”
Mercedes appears to be struggling the most among F1’s top teams and Russell’s issue, which was linked to the car’s hydraulic system, brought an early end to the team’s day with 98 laps split across the two drivers.
Lewis Hamilton completed 72 of those laps in the morning but was visibly struggling with the handling of the car as he caught huge slides from corner to corner on a number of occasions.
The final day should provide a better indication of how the top three teams stack up against each other, but Red Bull and Ferrari appear to be in a better place than Mercedes with two thirds of the test complete.
Fernando Alonso continued to look quick in the Aston Martin, with the third fastest time, suggesting the Silverstone-based team could be a surprise package this year. He was 0.555s off Verstappen using the same C3 compound tyres and over 0.25s clear of Sainz’s best effort for Ferrari, also using the C3.
AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries was fourth fastest using the softer C4 compound, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in fifth for Haas and also on the C4.
American rookie Logan Sargeant completed a mammoth 154 laps in the Williams and clocked the seventh fastest time. He parked the car in the pit lane with an apparent issue with the hybrid system as Williams’ mechanics had to take the precaution of wearing rubber gloves while handling the car to avoid a potential electric shock.
McLaren and Alpine, who scrapped over fourth in the constructors’ standings last year, were split by 0.011s in Friday’s timings as the eighth and ninth fastest teams ahead of Mercedes, which was slowest of all.
While McLaren has played down the performance of its car heading into the first race, Alpine seem more confident and have suggested their slower times are simply down to a different approach to testing compared to their rivals.
Day 2 final times:
1. Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo – 1:31.610 – 132 laps
2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull – +0.040s – 47 laps
3. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin – +0.595s – 130 laps
4. Nyck de Vries – AlphaTauri – +0.612s – 74 laps
5. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas – +0.856s – 68 laps
6. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari – +0.876s – 70 laps
7. Logan Sargeant – Williams – +0.939s – 154 laps
8. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari – +1.115 – 68 laps
9. Oscar Piastri – McLaren – +1.565s – 74 laps
10. Pierre Gasly – Alpine – +1.576s – 59 laps
11. Kevin Magnussen – Haas – +1.832s – 67 laps
12. Esteban Ocon – Alpine – +1.880s – 49 laps
13. George Russell – Mercedes -0 +2.044s – 26 laps
14. Sergio Perez – Red Bull – +2.141s – 76 laps
15. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes – +2.344s – 72 laps
16. Lando Norris – McLaren – +3.912s – 65 laps
17. Yuki Tsunoda – AlphaTauri – +4.098s – 85 laps
Source: www.espn.com