The second day of pre-season testing saw the sun begin to set on the Sakhir circuit at the same time that the gigantic floodlights came on. With less than an hour to go before the end of the session, the drivers rushed as hard as they could to collect as much information as possible, and some to test whether the new regulations have met the goal of cars following each other.
Arriving at the last part of the track, the reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, and Carlos Sainz, who is running as one of the favorites after seeing the performance of the Ferrari F1-75, had a clash.
The Spanish driver was in front of the Dutchman, but the Red Bull driver couldn’t wait to get ahead before the curve that led to the finish straight. Verstappen passed the Ferrari inside, but Sainz took advantage of the slipstream and the DRS to get parallel when it was time to brake to make the first lap of the linked.
The Madrid driver pushed to the maximum and managed to overtake the RB18, although the champion returned it to him before turn 4, one of the hot spots and the place where Verstappen himself lost victory in 2021 after going around the outside in his attempt to pass Lewis Hamilton.
Everything ended with a simple confrontation more typical of a race than a pre-season winter test, although this will be useful for the drivers to test the limits of these new cars, which have not yet been tested in competition conditions.
Next weekend will be the acid test for the 20 participants in this championship, which seems very close between the favourites, in principle, Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, who have dominated all the days except on a few occasions.
