Bahrain Testing 2 – Day 1: Pérez and Mercedes on Top, Red Bull and Lotus in the Garage

The first day of testing in the second session in Bahrain ended with the fastest time set by Sergio Pérez, in a Force India, with a lap in 1:35.290 on super soft tires late in the morning. The Mexican was able to complete around a hundred laps.

Behind him, Valtteri Bottas, in his Williams, was the most diligent driver with 128 laps completed, more than the distance of two Bahrain Grand Prix (57 laps), confirming the strong performance of the Mercedes engines since the start of testing.

Another Finn is in third place: Kimi Räikkönen, in his Ferrari, finished the day with 54 laps on the counter, having been hampered by an issue that kept him in the garage for nearly three hours late in the morning. He was also the cause of the very last red flag that ended the test day.

In fourth place, Nico Rosberg ended his day early due to issues with the W05. Nevertheless, he completed 89 laps of the Sakhir circuit, ensuring the presence of four Mercedes engines in the top four positions for laps completed. Kevin Magnussen, in 6th place driving the McLaren, was able to complete the Bahraini circuit 109 times.

Behind, we find the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo who, after having a decent morning (32 laps), encountered overheating problems. He stayed in the garage almost all afternoon, coming out only for three laps at the very end of the session. Lotus had a similar trajectory since after a relatively good morning — even though Maldonado caused the last red flag before the lunch break — the E22 did not come out in the afternoon, with the Enstone team ending their day in the middle of the afternoon due to an exhaust problem.

On the Marussia side, there can be satisfaction with a rather good driving session compared to last week (44 laps in one day against 29 over the four days of Bahrain 1). On the Caterham side, however, the day went very badly: after causing the first red flag, Kamui Kobayashi was never really able to get back on track.