Leclerc leads Norris and Bearman on second day of Bahrain testing

Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets as the second day of pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit came to a close – the Ferrari driver leading the way from McLaren’s Lando Norris and Haas’ Ollie Bearman.

Leclerc headed Thursday morning’s session in typically hot conditions with a best time of 1m 34.273s, and that remained the benchmark throughout the afternoon running as day turned to night in the Sakhir desert.

Leclerc finished just over half a second clear of reigning World Champion Norris, and a second up on Bearman, with all three drivers spending the entire day at the wheel and storming past the 100-lap milestone (despite a morning stoppage for the McLaren man).

Mercedes were one of several teams to split the day between their two drivers, albeit with Kimi Antonelli being severely delayed by a power unit issue in the morning before George Russell took over for the afternoon and placed fourth overall.

Newly promoted Red Bull racer Isack Hadjar was another to be held back by apparent technical problems early on, but he enjoyed a smoother second half to Thursday and ultimately rounded out the top-five positions.

Audi continued preparations for their debut F1 season with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, who wound up sixth and 10th respectively, surrounding Alpine’s Pierre Gasly (who also stopped in the morning), Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas (who lost part of his mirror in the afternoon) and Williams’ Alex Albon.

Racing Bulls duo Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson both got a solid number of laps under their belts en route to 11th and 13th respectively, with Carlos Sainz 12th after his latest run in the Williams and Fernando Alonso 14th aboard the new Aston Martin.

Sergio Perez was the other driver to suffer a stoppage in the early stages of Thursday’s running, grinding to a halt in the Cadillac, with Antonelli 16th and last in the standings after Mercedes’ aforementioned troubles restricted him to just three laps.

As the day drew to a close, there were plenty of flashing marshal posts while Race Control carried out various systems checks – drivers all reacting appropriately as yellow flag, red flag and Virtual Safety Car messages appeared trackside and on their steering wheels.

Drivers and teams will now reconvene in the Bahrain paddock to run through their latest sets of data before returning to the track on Friday, which will mark the third and final day of the opening pre-season test.