After the day on Thursday ended with a red flag due to a spin by Checo Pérez, the morning session on Friday was not without problems and we saw several breakdowns, three red flags (one simulated) and a long interruption.
Ocon, in the pink Alpine sporting the livery the team will wear at the Bahrain GP and Saudi Arabian GP , dominated the timesheets with a lap of 1m34.276s within the first hour and a half. The Frenchman used soft C4 tires in his best attempt, but his 59 laps (second team with the most kilometers) are positive news after the problems Alonso suffered yesterday afternoon and that left the Spaniard in just 24 laps.
Ocon was in the group of cars that took to the track as soon as the green traffic light came on, at eight in the morning (ten in Bahrain). Bottas , with the Alfa Romeo, led that little train where Russell , Tsunoda and Norris were also.
The one from McLaren probably felt a déjà vu from Thursday, and it is that first thing in the morning he knew he had to get back in the car, as happened the day before, because Ricciardo was still sick. Norris led in the early stages with a time of 1m38.543s, although he soon had to return to the pits for the team to work on brakes that had already caused problems on Thursday.
Norris was there for more than two hours, although he later managed to get out to add another 29 to the 50 laps of the first day.
Before the first 30 minutes were up, Ocon stopped the clock at 1m36.472s on C3 tyres, while Leclerc completed his opening laps in the Ferrari and moved up to second. Ocon would improve his mark with a 1:35.423 about to complete the first hour, but Leclerc responded instantly with a 1:34.366 that left his rival one second.
However, with a new set of soft tires and after nearly an hour and a half, Ocon would set a 1m34.276s that would ultimately give him the lead in the morning session.
Meanwhile, we continued to see images similar to those of the first day, with numerous tire blockages and excursions, especially in the difficult turn 10 of the Bahrain International Circuit.
But, before the second hour was up, the big scare came. Latifi suffered a brake failure that set his rear tires on fire and caused him to quickly get out of the car after going off track. In addition, the left tire of the Williams burst as a result of the fire and caused a moment of tension when doing so when there was a marshal very close.
The session was stopped for more than half an hour, until activity resumed with a green flag. The teams started doing long runs and testing race pace, and in fact the timesheets hardly changed in the final two hours, with only the lap counter going up for everyone.
With less than an hour to go, Vettel had a breakdown with the Aston Martin and had to stop. Luckily he did it on an asphalt run-off next to Turn 5, so there was no need to set a red flag period. When the car returned to the pitlane, the team took a deep breath to see that it was just a badly adjusted wheel. The German, who until that moment was the driver with the most laps, was able to start again in the final part, but just when he did, F1 decided to do a red flag drill and sent all the cars back to the road. boxes.
The session resumed with seven minutes remaining, but not all the teams came out. McLaren decided to end the morning to investigate more about his car and Haas F1 Team, who had not been able to shoot until 43 minutes after the start of the session, announced that Mick Schumacher had to stay in the box due to an exhaust problem.
After turning on the green traffic light and rehearsing starts, Bottas ‘ Alfa Romeo stopped and caused another red flag that would end the penultimate morning test in which the most active driver was Russell with the Mercedes, reaching up to 66 laps.
The Briton, with the still surprising Mercedes W13 “without pontoons”, dedicated himself to accumulating mileage and finished ninth, penultimate, only beating Latifi, who was also the driver with the fewest laps (only 12).
After Ocon and Leclerc, Verstappen finished third with Red Bull Racing and 45 laps, one less than Aston Martin had done and one more than AlphaTauri with Tsunoda .
The session will resume this afternoon, at 1:00 p.m. in Spain and 3:00 p.m. in Bahrain. In addition to Verstappen, Norris, Ocon and Tsunoda we will see how his teammates pass on to Lance Stroll, Carlos Sainz, Guanyu Zhou, Lewis Hamilton and the return of Kevin Magnussen.
Times, positions and results from the 2022 F1 test morning in Bahrain
| Pilot | Equipment | laps | Time (tyres) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
|
Alpine | 59 | 1’34″276  |
| 2 |  Charles Leclerc |
Ferrari | 54 | 1’34″366  |
| 3 |  Max Verstappen |
Red Bull | 45 | 1’35″531  |
| 4 |  Sebastian Vettel |
Aston Martin | 46 | 1’36″020 |
| 5 |  Lando Norris |
McLaren | 29 | 1’36″354 |
| 6 |
|
AlphaTauri | 44 | 1’36 “802 |
| 7 |
|
Alfa Romeo | 25 | 1’36″987 |
| 8 | Mick Schumacher |
Haas | 23 | 1’37″846 |
| 9 | George Russell |
Mercedes | 67 | 1’38″585 |
| 10 |
|
Williams | 12 | 1’39″845 |
Esteban Ocon
Yuki Tsunoda
Valtteri Bottas
Nicholas Latifi
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