Red Bull Racing continues to make progress on second day of testing

Published on 24 February 2023 by Stefan Meens

Oracle Red Bull Racing enjoyed another productive morning on day two of the 2023 Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain. Max Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez completed 76 laps in the RB19 and clocked the seventh quickest time. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was quickest ahead of Williams’ rookie Logan Sargaent and Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.

With teams all running a variety of testing programs, the true pace of the cars is difficult to judge. Nevertheless, Ferrari continued to show speed with Carlos Sainz at the sharp end throughout Friday morning. The Spaniard’s best effort (1:32.486) proved to be the quickest lap of the session.

Meanwhile at Red Bull, the focus lay on long runs, resulting in only the seventh quickest time for Perez but an encouraging and problem-free 76 laps completed.

In the final 30 minutes, Logan Sargeant tries his best to go quickest by bolting on the soft Pirellis. Sadly for the Williams driver, he falls 0.063s short off usurping Sainz from the top spot, confirming the latter as the fastest driver of day 2’s morning test.

The session comes to and end with a virtual safety and red flag practice procedure before the drivers that were still on track are allowed to do a practice start.

Max Verstappen will take over driving duties from Sergio Perez during the afternoon session. It will be last testing segment the Dutchman will participate in before next week’s opening Grand Prix at the same Bahrain international Circuit.