Formula 1 News: Leclerc tops Day 2 morning test session in Bahrain

Driving the #16 Ferrari, Charles Leclerc (pictured) was fastest in Thursday morning’s preseason test session at the Bahrain Sakhir Circuit with a 1m 34.273s, half a second clear of Lando Norris in P2, with Pierre Gasly a very distant third.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

With the track rubbering in, Leclerc’s time in the #16 Ferrari was faster than Lando Norris’ fast time on Wednesday.

Red Bull youngster Isack Hadjar was finally sent out by Red Bull – for the first time this session after an oil leak was discovered in his car.  At least that is what the team said was the reason. It’s possible they wanted to limit his track time for fear he would wad up the car like he did in Barcelona.

The issue ate into Isack Hadjar’s track time, with the Frenchman scheduled to take the reins of the RB22 for the entire day.

After wadding up his new Mercedes AMG GT63 Pro on the streets of San Marino this week, Kimi Antonelli only completed 3 laps because the sandbagging Mercedes team said they had to replace the engine in his car.

Norris actually completed the most laps of anyone before his pit lane problem, with 64 circuits of the Bahrain track.

Albon and Leclerc managed 62 each, Gasly 61 while Bearman and Alonso came close to race distance with 55.

Lawson managed 50 laps, there were 47 for Hulkenberg, and 42 for Perez.

But at the other end of the scale, Antonelli lapped just three times, and Hadjar once.

It will be a busy lunch for some of the teams today – Mercedes, Williams, Racing Bulls, Audi and Cadillac are all giving both drivers a chance to get behind the wheel and thus need to complete seat swaps in this lunch break.

Others might be fixing car issues – or at least investigating them, looking at you McLaren.

But a few might be able to have a more leisurely lunch break, with everything going to plan – including Ferrari, Haas and Alpine.

Bahrain Thursday Morning Test Results