Written by Cameron Gale, edited by Harshi Vashee
In the early minutes of the session it was anyone's guess who would set the fastest time this morning as Lando Norris went quickest to start with as he set a 1:38.543. The surprise, however, came from none other than the Alpine driver Esteban Ocon as he went fastest in sector one and sector two before going green in the third sector but that was enough to put him at the top of the timing screens with a 1:37.472. The only driver who would get close would be 2021 World Champion Max Verstappen in his RB18.
As the first hour of the day came to a close, the times were as follows. At the top of the timing screens was Charles Leclerc with a time of 1:34.366. Second place was Esteban Ocon with a 1:35.423. In third place was Max Verstappen with a 1:36.914. Followed by Yuki Tsunoda with a 1:37.893. In fifth place we find the newest Mercedes driver George Russell with a 1:38.535. Then, in sixth place we find Lando Norris with a 1:38.543. Sebastian Vettel puts his Aston Martin in seventh place with a 1:38.943. In eighth place we find Mick Schumacher with a 1:39.490. In ninth place was Valterri Bottas with a 1:40.863. In tenth we find Nicholas Latifi, who was yet to set a time.
There wasn't much news to report on until Nicholas Latifi's Williams caught fire and the session was then red flagged.
After a long break from testing, the teams managed to get back on track. The first car out was Esteban Ocon as he tried to improve his time. A few moments later, Mick Schumacher went out on the softs and tried to improve his lap time. He managed to better his lap time and went up to P5 with a 1:37.537. Tsunoda however, managed to split Lando Norris (P6) and Mick Schumacher (P5) as he moved into sixth place overall with a 1:37.782. Work once again continued down at McLaren as they were assessing Norris' brakes. There was more bad news for Haas as Mick Schumacher's car had some exhaust trouble after just 23 laps.
The morning session concluded as Valterri Bottas' Alfa Romeo came to a halt in the turn 8 runoff. The times were as follows:
1.Ocon, Alpine, 1m 34.276s, C4
2. Leclerc, Ferrari, 1m 34.366s, C3
3.Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m 35.874s, C2
4.Vettel, Aston Martin, 1m 36.020s, C3
5.Norris, McLaren, 1m 36.354s, C2 proto
6.Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, 1m 36.802s, C3
7.Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1m 36.987s, C2
8.Schumacher, Haas, 1m 37.846s, C2
9.Russell, Mercedes, 1m 38.585s, C2 proto
10.Latifi, Williams, 1m 39.845s, C2 proto
As the afternoon session got under way, Yuki Tsunoda was the first driver out on track. Guanyu Zhou managed to set a 1:41 in his Alfa Romeo on his next tour on track. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz was out on track in his Ferrari which was currently down in P10 but he was on a faster lap.
Kevin Magnussen was the next to go out on track as he set a 1:38.877 but he was very wiggly as he went through turn 10. He again wrestled the car through turn 1 as he tried to set a quicker lap. Stroll, however, set a good lap in his Aston Martin after having troubles with it earlier on in the session. He managed to set a 1:34.964.
There would be no more running from Williams that day as they tried to repair the damage on Nicholas Latifi's car. Due to the fire it caught in the morning session.
Yuki Tsunoda had so far completed 98 laps and he was hoping to do over 100 laps. However, Max Verstappen was taking his controversial exit line at turn 4 as he and Hamilton were out on track.
Magnussen was still exploring the limits of his Haas as he tried to impress everyone on his f1 return. But he went wide at turn 13 and took to the runoff. On the next lap he managed to get within a tenth of his teammate Mick Schumacher.
Sainz managed to set the quickest time so far with a 1:33.532 to extend his advantage at the top of the timings.
35 minutes later, Esteban Ocon's Alpine stopped on track and caused the 3rd red flag of the day.
After 16 minutes, it was more green flag running and Zhou was the first driver out on track. Magnussen moved up to sixth after he improved his time by 2 seconds. A few minutes later Lando Norris' McLaren came to a stop at the end of the pitlane causing yet another red flag.
We then went back to green flag running and Stroll, Hamilton, Verstappen, and Zhou went straight out on track with just over an hour to go. Hamilton managed to go fifth overall with a 1:35.471. Norris was out on track a few minutes after so whatever the issue was, wasn't major. Verstappen also improved his time to go 3rd with a 1:34.232 exactly 0.7s off of Sainz's time.
Hamilton responded to Verstappen's time with a 1:34.141 to go 10th quickest overall. Norris surprisingly managed to take out over a second of his time but remained seventh overall.
There was also a look at what racing would be like as Sainz and Verstappen traded positions for a lap before Verstappen managed to get past him at turn 2. Verstappen improved his time yet again as he set a 1:34.011 to make him go second fastest. That's the end of pre-season testing day two except for Haas who were allowed one hour of extra track time.
During Haas' extra time on track Magnussen managed to put in the fastest lap of the session which was a 1:33.207.
Here are the times for the end of pre-season testing day two:
Magnussen, Haas, 1m 33.207s, C4, 60 laps*
Sainz, Ferrari, 1m 33.532s, C4, laps: 60
Verstappen, Red Bull, 1m 34.011s, C4, laps: 86
Stroll, Aston Martin, 1m 34.064s, C4, laps: 70
Hamilton, Mercedes, 1m 34.141s, C5,c laps: 47
Ocon, Alpine, 1m 34.276s, C4, laps: 111
Leclerc, Ferrari, 1m 34.366s, C3, laps: 54
Norris, McLaren, 1m 34.609s, C3, laps: 60
Vettel, Aston Martin, 1m 36.020s, C3, laps: 46
Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, 1m 36.802s, C3, laps: 120
Bottas, Alfa Romeo, 1m 36.987s, C2, laps: 25
Schumacher, Haas, 1m 37.846s, C2, laps: 23
Russell, Mercedes, 1m 38.585s, C2 proto, laps: 67
Latifi, Williams, 1m 39.845s, C2 proto, laps: 12
Zhou, Alfa Romeo, 1m 41.805s, C2 proto, laps: 48
*Given one-hour extra session as part of Haas additional track time for missing Thursday morning.
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