Hamilton easily ahead at Bahrain test

F1 Test, Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit

Lewis Hamilton kept Mercedes AMG ahead at the second day of testing at Bahrain. After Nico Rosberg topped the times yesterday, Hamilton completed another 120 trouble free laps for his team.

Sauber ended up with a power unit issue soon after running started, forcing the team to make repairs for more than two hours. After lunch though, things improved for the troubled team with Dutch test driver Van Der Garde completing 77 laps in total.

Worse off were McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus, all completing less than 30 laps during the day. Having completed a mere 16 laps yesterday, Lotus once again encountered a power unit issue after 16 laps of running, ending the day early. Lotus planned to complete the day doing various aerodynamic jobs and managed only a fraction of that, having struggled with their power unit since the start of the day, until it failed completely midway through the afternoon session.

McLaren's Magnussen meanwhile ended up in the gravel trap just before lunchtime, having suffered a front left pushrod failure under braking. Lengthy repairs were needed and allowed the Dane back on track in the last half hour.

Ferrari had call their testing to a half after just 12 laps when the chassis was found to be damaged. After the necessary checks were made, the team decided to bring the test to a premature end as a precautionary measure.

On the tyre front, it was up to Williams and Mercedes to perform testing for Pirelli. Both companies were given prototype tyres for 2015. Felipe Nasr from Williams said they tried the tyres without warming them up in blankets beforehand and reported them to be very difficult to get up to temperature.