Esteban Ocon ended the second hour of Friday’s Bahrain test on top of the timesheets, setting a 1:34.276 to move ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was the early pace-setter.
However, the biggest talking point came in the final 20 minutes of the session, with the rear brakes of the Williams FW44 catching fire, causing it to spin as it made its way back to the pit lane. The car didn’t set a lap time during the opening hour, and managed just 12 laps before it hit issues.
The first session of the day concludes at 2pm local time, before resuming at 3pm for another four hours of on-track action. Haas will run an extra two hours this evening, after freight issues prevented it from testing on Thursday morning.
| # | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | E. Ocon | Alpine | 1:34.276 | 24 | |
| 2 | C. Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:34.366 | 0.0 | 17 |
| 3 | M. Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:35.874 | 1.5 | 26 |
| 4 | V. Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1:36.987 | 2.7 | 18 |
| 5 | Y. Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1:37.893 | 3.6 | 15 |
| 6 | L. Norris | McLaren | 1:38.543 | 4.2 | 6 |
| 7 | G. Russell | Mercedes | 1:38.585 | 4.3 | 20 |
| 8 | S. Vettel | Aston Martin | 1:38.948 | 4.6 | 35 |
| 9 | M. Schumacher | Haas | 1:39.258 | 4.9 | 10 |
| 10 | N. Latifi | Williams | 1:39.845 | 5.5 | 12 |
