Bahrain Testing 3 – Day 2: Hamilton and Mercedes at Ease, Ferrari and Lotus Struggling

The second and final day of in-season testing in Bahrain saw Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time, well ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne, but also, and most notably, complete 118 laps, which is more than the distance of two Grand Prix (57 laps), just like Nico Rosberg did yesterday.

However, it should be noted that Mercedes, like Williams, was in tire testing for Pirelli, which implies a restriction on the possible settings and also, the lack of knowledge of the types of tires used.

Behind the Mercedes, it’s Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso which slightly breaks the hegemony of Mercedes engines, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s McLaren. The French driver was responsible for the day’s first red flag, while the Dane caused the second red flag just before the break, following a minor off-track incident due to a failure of the front-left suspension. However, it was not serious as the McLaren came to a stop in the gravel.

The start of Red Bull’s day was disrupted, but after only 9 laps in the morning, Daniel Ricciardo managed to finish the day with 65 laps completed. Jules Bianchi was the second most diligent driver of the day, with 93 laps behind the wheel of the Marussia.

Ferrari and Lotus: left too early

As yesterday, several teams prematurely ended their test day. This was the case today with Ferrari, which cited a chassis problem. Fernando Alonso, who completed only 12 laps in the morning, was driving with Kimi Räikkönen’s chassis, which was allegedly damaged on Friday when the Finn climbed over an extension of the curb at turn 4.

As yesterday, once again, Lotus stopped after 16 laps. The British team’s program was supposed to have Romain Grosjean in the morning and Pastor Maldonado in the afternoon. But given what happened in the morning (7 laps completed, no timed laps), the French driver continued his session for 5 more laps. 32 laps in 16 hours of testing, it’s safe to say it’s a disaster for the Enstone team, which was counting on these tests to advance the development of the Lotus E22.

Caterham, whose car caused one of the red flags of the day, suffered an ERS problem. Like yesterday, however, the Malaysian team was able to complete more than the distance of a race (66 laps).

Ranking of Bahrain Private Testing 3 – Day 2