Carlos Sainz leads day 2 Bahrain preseason testing as Leclerc hits drain cover

Carlos Sainz led the way during the second day of Bahrain preseason testing as Ferrari dominated the proceedings amid Leclerc’s floor damage due to a loose drain cover during the morning session

Ferrari’s second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain went perfectly, with Carlos Sainz recording the fastest time of the day in the afternoon and Charles Leclerc setting the fastest time in the morning.

The Ferrari driver took the wheel of the SF-24 from teammate Charles Leclerc for the evening session and posted a time of 1’29.921 on the C4 compound tyres, which was significantly faster than Max Verstappen’s best performance from the first day.

However, Charles Leclerc suffered floor damage to the SF-24 in a strange mishap that happened barely 80 minutes into the morning session, making Thursday somewhat more eventful for the Ferrari duo than the headline-grabbing time benchmarks.

Leclerc was the victim of a loose drain cover at turn 11 of the Bahrain International Circuit, which brought back memories of last year’s Las Vegas weekend as the debris left on the track was too much for him to miss consequently resulting in floor damage.

The morning session was red flagged following the incident to give way for track repairs as Ferrari got the opportunity to replace the floor.

Leclerc’s best performance before to the drain cover incident was 1:31.750s after 36 laps, which secured the top spot on the timesheets at the halfway point.

The running in the evening was extended by one hour, giving drivers five hours of track action. After the break, Ferrari allowed Leclerc to continue driving the car for the first hour before handing it over to Sainz.

During the evening session, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, and Kevin Magnussen took over in their respective cars, while Sergio Perez, Logan Sargeant, and Lewis Hamilton ran the full day.

Leclerc’s early session outstanding effort held firm for the first hour of running, while Hamilton moved up to second on the timesheets thanks to C3 compound tyres. That placed him just under Oscar Piastri’s early-session mark, but it was still 0.5 seconds off Leclerc’s best upto that point.

Ninety minutes into the run, Sainz switched to new C3 tyres and produced a time of 1’31.856, the quickest of the second session and only a tenth slower than his teammate’s first-run effort.

Soon after, Norris outpaced Bottas and his teammate to take third place for the day, two-tenths behind Leclerc’s record. Meanwhile, Bottas placed his Sauber third quickest on the day.

Hamilton sprinted up to second place with less than an hour remaining, finishing just over a second slower than Sainz’s best time on the C3 compound. However, Perez used the C3 tyres to place second in the final hour with a time of 1’30.679, seven tenths slower than Sainz’s best.

With only fifteen minutes remaining, FIA race director Niels Wittich initiated a scheduled test of the Safety Car, Virtual Safety Car, and red flag protocols.

Subsequently, a simulated Safety Car restart test was conducted, in which Hamilton spearheaded a group comprising Norris, Bottas, Ocon, and Magnussen, who concurrently battled in the first two sectors of the lap.

2024 Formula 1 Bahrain preseason test – Day two results