Sainz tops second morning, Perez impresses with eye-catching long run pace

F1 Test, Sakhir, Bahrain International Circuit

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz grabbed attention with some quick laps in the second morning session of the Official Pre-Season Bahrain F1 Testing, ending the 4-hour running on top with a time of 1m32.486s, pipping Williams' rookie driver Logan Sargeant with Aston Martin's new recruit Fernando Alonso finishing in an impressive third place.

Following a difficult first day, Ferrari bounced back with a more conventional setup that yielded the team's all-new SF23 with a much stable platform to work with. The improved stability meant that Carlos Sainz was able to carry out a wide variety of experiments, trying out different suspension setups on lower fuel run before concentrating on heavy fuel runs.

The Madrid-born driver set his best time with a 1m32.486s on Pirelli's yellow-banded tyres in the first half of the morning session. The one-time race winner notched up a total of 70 laps on the second morning of the three-day Bahrain test.

Williams delivered an impressive performance thanks to some late push laps of Logan Sargeant with the American driver becoming the first racer to try out Pirelli's red-walled soft compound. The former F2 driver logged in 73 laps of running with his effort of 1m32.549s turning out only 63 thousands of a second slower than Sainz' benchmark.

After completing his official debut with Aston Martin yesterday, Fernando Alonso was back in the car for today's session. The Spaniard mainly concentrated on short runs, clocking a 1m32.969s that was enough for P3. The Oviedo-born driver will continue to work in the new AMR23 for the afternoon in absence of the Silverstone-based outfit's Canadian driver Lance Stroll, who has picked up injuries while training in Spain.

Sergio Perez jumped in the new RB19 after the opening day of the pre-season testing saw Max Verstappen drive for Red Bull for the whole day. The Mexican carried out several short runs at the start before switching his focus to heavy fuel runs. The Mexican used three different compounds on his race run, showing eye-catching consistency and tyre performance.