The second day of testing confirmed the trend: the new cars are fast, reasonably reliable and the power balance is almost no different from last year. Financial regulations have limited the options for teams, who are now trying to save some budget for modifying cars during the season.
The teams concentrated as before on collecting information on the behavior of the car and its tires over long distances, mainly using the C3 compound, the most popular during the season. At the same time, Perez drove a long distance on C1 tires, which were barely worn.
The schedule had to be adjusted due to a broken drainage cover in the first session. 1 hour and 44 minutes before the end, Leclerc damaged its bottom, which subsequently had to be replaced, and a few seconds later so did Hamilton.
Testing was stopped with red flags to fix everything, but this could not be done quickly, forcing the first session to be completed at this point and the second to start an hour earlier to partially compensate for the lost time. As a result, the day’s session lasted 5 hours and 10 minutes – minutes were added to test the FIA display systems when the safety car was deployed.
Perez lost time in the morning due to overheating of the brakes and had difficulty reaching the pits in the second session due to an unexpected loss of power, but after restarting the car he took off again. The rest of the session went smoothly. Many cars suffered from rocking again.
Towards the end of the second session, some drivers, especially those who will not be working tomorrow, set out on soft tires with a small amount of fuel to try the car in qualifying mode.
The protocol was led by Carlos Sainz, who completed a lap in 1:29.921, which is one and a half tenths of Max Verstappen’s result yesterday, but these are just tests. Next week we’ll evaluate the balance of power during qualifying – which takes place on Friday!
Results of the second day of testing
| Pilot | Team | Time | Circles | Tyres | |
| 1. K. Sainz | Ferrari | 1:29,921 | 84 | C4 | |
| 2. S. Perez | Red Bull | 1:30,679 | 129 | C3 | |
| 3. L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:31,066 | 123 | C3 | |
| 4. L.Norris | McLaren | 1:31,256 | 52 | C3 | |
| 5. D. Ricciardo | RB | 1:31,361 | 88 | C4 | |
| 6. S. Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:31,750 | 54 | C3 | |
| 7. L. Walk | Aston Martin | 1:32,029 | 96 | C3 | |
| 8. E. Okon | Alps | 1:32,061 | 78 | C3 | |
| 9. V. Bottas | Sauber | 1:32,227 | 97 | C3 | |
| 10. O. Piastri | McLaren | 1:32,328 | 35 | C3 | |
| 11. L. Sargent | Williams | 1:32,578 | 117 | C4 | |
| 12. F. Alonso | Aston Martin | 1:33,053 | 31 | C3 | |
| 13. G.Zhou | Sauber | 1:33,715 | 38 | C3 | |
| 14. P. Gasly | Alps | 1:33,804 | 33 | C3 | |
| 15. K.Magnussen | Hare | 1:36,611 | 93 | C3 | |
| 16. N. Hulkenberg | Hare | 1:37,509 | 31 | C3 | |
| 17. Yu.Tsunoda | RB | 1:38,074 | 40 | C3 |
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
