Kevin Magnussen fastest for Haas but Williams smouldering at Bahrain F1 test, Day 2

Kevin Magnussen topped the timesheets for Haas on the second day of the Bahrain test, as he drove into the night to make up for the freight delay that cost the team running time on Thursday.

Returning to F1 after leaving Haas at the end of 2020, Magnussen displayed his trademark style with plenty of sideways sliding under acceleration.

In the cooler night temperatures, he went 0.3sec faster than Carlos Sainz on the same C4 soft tyres, but Ferrari remains the early 2022 favourite — at least for now.

Carlos Sainz finished the day 0.4sec clear of third-fastest Max Verstappen and the pair showed what could be in store during the first race as they went wheel to wheel for several corners of the Sakhir circuit.

AlphaTauri recorded the most laps of the day and Mercedes looked steady, if still heavily affected by porpoising at speed.

Williams, however, had two sessions to forget after Nicholas Latifi’s brakes sparked a fast-spreading fire. The car wasn’t seen again after completing just 12 laps but it wasn’t the only team to hit problems.

McLaren’s brake woes continued an the team said that it faces a “race against time” to get new parts in time for the final day of testing.

Alfa Romeo, Alpine and Aston Martin lost time after stopping on track, as did Haas which had exhaust problems, delaying Kevin Magnussen’s return to the cockpit after lunch.

2022 F1 Bahrain testing: Day 2 morning session

Half an hour in, Esteban Ocon topped the timesheets with a 1min 36.472sec lap in the pink-liveried Alpine that we’ll see in the first two races of the year.

That displaced Lando Norris, in the cockpit again with Daniel Ricciardo too ill to drive — but Covid-negative.

Ocon’s reign was briefly interrupted by Charles Leclerc, but he was back on top with a 1min 34.276sec time, set on the softest-but-one C4 tyre, an hour and a half into the session.

With teams not yet focused on outright speed, it would remain the fastest of the morning.

A red flag interrupted proceedings soon afterwards, as flames spewed from the rear brakes of Nicholas Latifi’s Williams — moments after Alex Albon had told reporters that testing was going well for the team.

Parts could be seen exploding from the car as marshals — and Latifi — targeted it with extinguishers, but Albon later said that it looked worse than it really was. There’s still no word on when we’ll see the car on track again, though.

Ocon continued clocking the laps when the session restarted, leading Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell and Mick Schumacher back on track, with Norris following soon afterwards.

The McLaren driver suffered from brake problems yesterday and they were the focus of attention again when he returned to the pits.

Sebastian Vettel, meanwhile, hauled himself into the top four times with a 1min 36.020sec lap on medium C3 tyres; the Aston Martin 0.15sec behind Max Verstappen on harder C2 tyres, 0.65sec behind Leclerc on mediums and 0.75sec behind Ocon’s soft C4 time.

Vettel’s session was soon interrupted, however, as he pulled off the track onto an unused section of asphalt, allowing his car to be recovered without a red flag.

Mechanics spent a lot of time examining the right rear tyre when it was returned to the pits, and Vettel was back in the car with 15min to go.

Haas, however, was shutting up shop for the morning, with exhaust problems but barely missed out, as the morning’s second red flag appeared — just as Vettel left the pits.

This time it was a systems check, which should have been ended by a practice standing start but it didn’t work as planned.

Leclerc, Vettel and Bottas lined up on the grid but Verstappen and George Russell were too late and were stuck at the end of the pitlane — closed to avoid clashing with the start.

An extra formation lap was then allowed so that the cars could join the grid, only for Bottas to stop on track with apparent gearbox problems, which triggered a third red flag. And with seconds left of the session, that was that.

Morning session times

2022 Bahrain F1 testing: Day 2 afternoon session

Morning pacesetter Ocon was out early again, but it was a quiet start to the afternoon. That was partly due to the teams who had hit problems in the morning.

Williams confirmed that it would not be out again following Latifi’s rear brake fire, while Alfa Romeo and Haas were also delayed.

Red Bull also made a late appearance after screening off its garage, eventually appearing an hour and a half into the session.

That was just after Carlos Sainz finally overhauled Ocon’s fastest time from the morning with a 1min 33.943sec lap.

At around the same time, Kevin Magnussen made his return for Haas, the Dane displaying his trademark gung-ho style with a series of power slides under acceleration.

Yuki Tsunoda had his head down and was the first driver to rack up 100 laps in the day for AlphaTauri, but Carlos Sainz was still setting the pace. A tow from Lewis Hamilton helped him go faster on the C4 soft tyres and the 1min 33.532 lap would stand until Magnussen’s night-time run. It wouldn’t be the last we saw of cars in close proximity.