- First Bahrain Test - Day Two
Alonso fastest on second morning in Bahrain
Fernando Alonso set the fastest time on the second morning of testing in Bahrain, although his best effort was still nearly a second shy of Nico Hulkenberg's soft tyre hot lap from Day One.
The second day got underway at 9:00 but was red flagged after five minutes when Nico Rosberg's Mercedes came to a halt with a faulty sensor displaying a warning. Rosberg had another problem as he attempted a race simulation later in the day, causing a second red flag, but Mercedes still racked up a respectable morning mileage with 34 laps in total.
Rivals Red Bull spent the first hour of the session in the garage as the team fitted new parts that had arrived from the factory overnight. The opening day of the test saw the team solve some of the problems it had experienced at Jerez, but also discover new ones as it completed just 14 laps and ended the day by grinding to a halt on track. A total of 26 laps on the morning of Day Two showed some signs of progress, but Vettel was still a long way off the pace as the team continued to focus on reliability over performance.
Toro Rosso was also making up for lost time following an oil leak on its car on Wednesday, but despite completing 53 laps by 13:00 Jean-Eric Vergne's morning was cut short when he stopped on track with a problem. Williams also made a positive recovery from its fuel system issue on Wednesday, with Valtteri Bottas completing 43 laps and setting the second best time of the morning.
Kevin Magnussen only managed eight laps on his second day at the wheel of the McLaren but was ready to head back out after the team's lunch break. Kamui Kobayashi also had limited mileage due to some telemetry issues with his Caterham but the team had the car fired up again at midday.
After making its public testing debut on Wednesday, the Lotus E22 returned to the track on Thursday and nearly trebled its total lap count with an additional 15 laps. The team had battery issues on the opening day which it was hoping to fix in time for the morning.
Times at 13:00
Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:37.700 31 laps Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:37.882 43 laps Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:38.394 24 laps Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:39.958 8 laps Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1:40.540 26 laps Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:40.609 53 laps Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:40.932 34 laps Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:41.135 40 laps Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:41.670 15 laps Max Chilton Marussia 1:42.511 14 laps Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:45.059 8 laps
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