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Bahrain testing: Zhou quickest as Mercedes break down

Alfa Romeo's Zhou Guanyu was the surprise name at the top of the timesheets at the end of the second day of pre-season testing at Bahrain International Circuit on Friday.

Zhou's best time of 1:31.610s was set on the softest of the Pirelli tyre compounds, and was four hundredths of a second quicker than Red Bull's Max Verstappen who had been quickest on day one.

Fernando Alonso continued to put in a strong performance for his new team Aston Martin and was third fastest ahead of AlphaTauri rookie Nyck de Vries by the time the chequered flag came out to end the day's track time.

Bahrain Pre-Season Test - Day 2 final

Pos	Driver	Team	Time	Tyre	Laps
1	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1:31.610s	C5	133
2	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.040s	C3	47
3	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.595s	C3	130
4	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri	+ 0.612s	C4	74
5	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	+ 0.856s	C5	68
6	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	+ 0.876s	C3	70
7	Logan Sargeant	Williams	+ 0.939s	C5	154
8	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 1.115s	C3	68
9	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 1.565s	C3	74
10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 1.826s	C3	59
11	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	+ 1.832s	C2	67
12	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1.880s	C3	49
13	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 2.128s	C3	26
14	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	+ 2.141s	Test	76
15	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	+ 2.344s	C3	72
16	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 3.912s	C2	65
17	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	+ 6.077s	C3	85

Zhou, Alonso and Williams' Logan Sargeant were the only three drivers to stay in the cockpit all day, and duly completed the most laps of the 17 drivers at work.

Sargeant - who finished seventh quickest - topped the distance tally with 154 laps of the 15 turn, 5.412km circuit under his belt as he strives to be ready in time for the first Grand Prix of the season at the venue next week. Zhou contributed 133 laps and Alonso put in 130 laps of the grand total of 1317.

Verstappen had been the only driver to go the full distance on Thursday, but today settled for just an afternoon stint in which he completed a modest 47 laps. Team mate Sergio Perez had put in an additional 76 laps, but was only 14th after his first outings in the RB19.

Haas had a solid day with Nico Hulkenberg setting the fifth fastest time on the softest C5 compound, and Kevin Magnussen 11th on the harder C2 tyres.

Carlos Sainz had topped the times before the midday break, but he handed over the keys to the Ferrari to Charles Leclerc for the afternoon/evening session. As a result, Sainz ended up pushed down to sixth while Leclerc was a touch slower in P8.

McLaren's Oscar Piastri's morning stint saw him finish sixth fastest, but the team once again struggled with reliability. The rookie managed 74 laps before the break, while Lando Norris completed 65 laps with his best time putting him 16th.

However the biggest concern on Friday was with Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton lost time in the morning when a piece of debris appeared to break off from the underside of the car, and he was only 15th despite completing 72 laps.

Even worse awaited George Russell when he took over after the break. He was slightly quicker than Hamilton in 15th, but the W14 suffered a hydraulics failure and broke down on track after just 26 laps further, triggering a red flag while the stricken Silver Arrow was recovered on a low-loader.

Elsewhere, Alpine looked to be struggling somewhat for pace with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finishing the day P10 and P12, with 59 laps completed for Gasly and just 49 laps for Ocon.

Yuki Tsunoda seemed to be focused on long distance reliability development for AlphaTauri. He completed 85 laps in his half day at the wheel without major problems, but was a full six seconds slower than Zhou's benchmark at the top.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.