Carlos Sainz tops the timesheet for Ferrari on second day of Formula 1 Aramco Pre-Season Testing 2024 at BIC

Carlos Sainz tops the timesheet for Ferrari on second day of Formula 1 Aramco Pre-Season Testing 2024 at BIC

Carlos Sainz powered Ferrari to the top of the timesheet today on the second day of Formula 1 Aramco Pre-Season Testing at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.

Sainz set the pace in the afternoon session with a blistering fastest lap of one minute 29.921 seconds. Sainz posted his time under lights and in cool evening conditions, as fans watched on from BIC’s Main Grandstand and got a sneak preview of F1’s new challengers in action on track, as they gear up for the start of the 2024 FIA F1 World Championship.

Testing continues Friday (23 February) with a final day of running at “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”. BIC will once again be welcoming fans from 12pm up until the end of testing at 7pm.

Tickets are available at BD5 for adults and at half-price for children. They can be purchased online at bahraingp.com or by calling the BIC Hotline on +973-17450000.

Tickets to pre-season testing offer an incredible opportunity to witness F1 cars in action at a low price. Free entry to the last day of tests is also available to all fans who had purchased their F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024 tickets before 1 February.

All those coming to BIC for Friday’s action will be able to watch the F1 teams and drivers busy at work. Testing will once again be held over two sessions, first from 10am to 2pm and then again from 3pm to 7pm.

Charles Leclerc set the morning session’s fastest lap of 1:31.750, with Oscar Piastri of McLaren and Logan Sargeant of Williams behind him.

Sainz then topped the timesheet by the day’s end, with his leading mark nearly one-and-a-half seconds quicker than the first day’s best of 1:31.344 clocked by three-time defending drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

Sainz completed 84 laps of work in today’s tests.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez followed on the timesheet 0.758 seconds behind Sainz. He was in his RB20 contender for the full day and racked up 129 laps of running—nearly 700 kilometres in total, which was the most for day two.

Lewis Hamilton, also testing for the whole day in Mercedes’ F1 W15 challenger, came third overall 1.145s off the pace, while Lando Norris in McLaren’s MCL38 finished fourth-fastest 1.335s from Sainz.