F1 | Bahrain Test, day 2: Leclerc before the stop due to the manhole

The morning of the second day of testing in Bahrain ended unexpectedly, ahead of what was planned for the first part of today's session. In fact, when there were still about two hours left until the checkered flag, the stewards were forced to display the red flag due to a blown manhole at the entrance to turn 11.

In fact, along the whole of that curb, a rain drain strip runs parallel, over which the drivers often tend to pass over it in order to widen the trajectory as much as possible in view of the entrance to Turn 11. The manhole cover was raised Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes, but the debris was then also hit by Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, which prompted the stewards to display the red flag.

Fortunately, the SF-24 suffered minimal damage, so much so that the mechanics were able to repair and replace the damaged parts quite quickly, with the car ready to return to the track around thirty minutes after the red flag was shown. However, given the need to check the entire area and carry out the necessary repairs to the trackside manholes, the race director decided to suspend the session early.

To make up for some of the time lost in the morning, the afternoon session will be extended by an hour: the teams will return to the track at 2pm local time (one hour earlier than the initial schedule) and will be able to run until 7pm local time, for a total of five hours.

As for what happened in the only two hours available to the teams in the morning session, it was Charles Leclerc who set the best time with the Red, who followed a particular programme. The Monegasque driver in fact tackled several runs in the same way, completing two fast laps punctuated by a passage through the pit lane. The Prancing Horse engineers repeated this program on four occasions to evaluate the car's reactions to the set-up changes. Only in the final part of the session did Leclerc begin a long run on the C3, but was forced to interrupt it due to the damage sustained to the floor and the red flag which ended the morning early.

Second best time, again on C3, for Oscar Piastri with McLaren. The first hour for the Woking team was dedicated to further aerodynamic measurements, with short outings of a maximum of one or two timed laps. After an hour and a half, however, the Australian began to lap with more continuity, putting together two long runs of over ten laps on the C3: in his case too, however, the second stint was interrupted by the red flag.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Logan Sargeant follows in third place with the Williams, almost a second behind Leclerc: the American completed his best lap with the C4, a softer compound than that used by the tread. Undoubtedly the Grove team hoped to be able to lap with more continuity given the reliability problems encountered yesterday, but in the morning they only managed to put together 30 laps.

Very particular program for Sergio Perez with Red Bull, who is also the one who has completed the fewest laps ever, remaining stuck at twenty. After a small problem with the brakes overheating which forced him into the pits for half an hour, the Milton Keynes team focused on two-lap runs, but returning to the pits before being able to record a time: it is clear that this programme, repeated six times, it was aimed at evaluating different settings and changes in terms of height from the ground.

Fifth time for Fernando Alonso with Aston Martin who, unlike yesterday, concentrated on short runs in the morning: it is likely that the long stints would have been reserved for the second part of the session, but the red flag changed the plans. Followed by Hamilton, who was more focused on long runs with the C3, a compound of which Mercedes led 25 sets, and Guanyu Zhou with the Sauber: as for the Briton, for the Chinese too the work focused on understanding the behavior of the long distance car with the yellow band compound.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Finally, Pierre Gasly follows, who mainly ran rather short runs on the C1 and C3 and Nico Hulkenberg, who completed two long stints on the C3 to evaluate tire degradation, an aspect on which Haas has decided to concentrate to understand if it has solved the problems that often affected it last season.

Yuki Tsunoda closes the ranking: after an initial hour spent carrying out aerodynamic measurements, the Japanese driver was starting a race simulation and had recently completed the first stint on the C3, at least before the red flag interrupted the action on the track early.

To make up for the time lost in the morning, the afternoon session will start at 2pm local time (12pm Italian time), thus being extended by an hour compared to the original programme.