The second day of testing in Bahrain also had some dramas to offer. Sebastian Vettel lost almost the entire morning with a gearbox defect . Lewis Hamilton sank his Mercedes in the meantime in the gravel. The day's best secured Valtteri Bottas .

 

With only three days of testing before the start of the season, no team can actually allow themselves longer idle times. But even in the second session on Saturday (March 13th), some engineers had to quickly knock their elaborately prepared test plans back into the bin. After there was a problem with reliability , especially at Haas and Mercedes, at the start, Aston Martin was hit .

 

Sebastian Vettel had just completed six laps in the morning when the transmission in his new racing car went on strike without warning. Coincidentally, it was the same component that thwarted the Silver Arrow the day before . Even if the two defects have not yet been fully clarified, Mercedes does not believe that both problems have the same cause.

 

The Aston Martin mechanics managed to replace the control box before lunch, but Vettel couldn't do more than four more laps to check the systems .

 

"Something like that can always happen," the Heppenheimer waved off. "Of course I could have used the time because I still have to get used to the car . Now I hope that we can at least gather some information tomorrow." In the afternoon the AMR21 ran like clockwork. Lance Stroll completed 71 laps without any significant incidents.

 

Bottas drives the best time

 

At Mercedes , too , not everything went smoothly on the second day of the test . After looking at the W12, observers on the track reported a very unstable rear end. 135 minutes after the start of the test, even a seven-time world champion could no longer catch the bitchy Silver Arrow . At Turn 13, Lewis Hamilton lost control and slid backwards into the gravel.

 

The car had to be freed from the sandpit with a tow truck , which in the end did not cost a lot of testing time. After a short cleaning, the champion went straight to the program. Together with Valtteri Bottas , who took over the steering wheel in the afternoon, Mercedes achieved 116 laps, exactly half of which were divided between the two drivers.

 

In the last half an hour of the day, the engineers then sent the W12 for the first time with a little less fuel and the very soft tires (C5) on the hunt for times. In the end, Bottas rounded the 5.412-kilometer desert course in 1: 30.289 minutes. That was enough for the best time of the day , which was also four tenths below Verstappen's fastest lap from the start.

 

Even if some teams still did without fast laps, the table was at least a little more meaningful than the day before. The temperatures were significantly lower for the entire session than 24 hours before, which improved the grip, especially in daylight. In addition, the wind wasn't quite as strong as it was on the first laps in Bahrain .

 

Second place went somewhat surprisingly to Pierre Gasly, who made a strong impression with his Alpha Tauri. The Frenchman, also with C5 tires, was only a tenth behind the Silver Arrow . Lance Stroll , Lando Norris , Antonio Giovinazzi and Charles Leclerc were also able to keep the gap on the other places below six tenths.

 

Perez distributes Red Bull parts

 

In addition to Vettel's technical breakdown and the departure of Hamilton , Sergio Perez caused the third major excitement of the day. Two and a half hours before the end of the session, the new man at Red Bull was about to slip out of the slipstream of Williams driver Nicholas Latifi on the home stretch when the bonnet tore open on the left without warning.

 

The debris could be cleared from the runway quickly. And after a brief examination in the garage, Perez immediately resumed his testing program with a new panel. The Mexican had a total of 117 laps, which was enough for fourth place in the kilometer standings behind Nicholas Latifi (132), Fernando Alonso (128), and Antonio Giovinazzi (125).

 

Speaking of Alonso : The Spaniard experienced a rather uneventful comeback on his first appearance in the Alpine A521. In the morning, aero tests and tuning work were on the program. In the afternoon, the engineers put the two-time world champion mainly on long runs. " Fernando showed a competitive pace from the start. He was fully motivated in the matter," said technical director Marcin Budkowski.

 

In the afternoon, Alonso shared the route with Mick Schumacher , who was finally able to familiarize himself with his Haas VF-21 after the technical bad luck on Friday. After a few short runs to find a good setup, the rookie was sent straight to a qualifying simulation with soft tires . The session was rounded off with a racing simulation and pit stop exercises in the evening hours.

 

During one of the many tire changes, however, there was a small incident when Schumacher pulled the front jack with him while driving off. But you can't blame the newbie for the slapstick insert. The Haas traffic light had switched to the green light a little prematurely, which gave the driver the signal to leave.

 

In the table, Schumacher landed on a decent twelfth place. The youngster with the prominent name was able to leave teammate Nikita Mazepin behind, who ran a similar program in the morning. However, it should not go unmentioned that the track did not have the same grip in the morning as it did after the break.

 

In the gallery we show you the highlights of the day again.

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