MADRID, 22 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) led the morning session of the Bahrain tests this Thursday, confirming that the 'SF-24' has a lot of speed in one lap, and surpassing the McLaren of the Australian Oscar Piastri, while the Spanish Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) was fifth and once again transmitted good feelings in a start to the day that ended early due to a problem on the track.
The great protagonist of Thursday morning was Charles Leclerc. It only took the Ferrari driver 24 minutes to take the lead in the table with a time of 1.31.822, but still a bit far, seven tenths, from the best time achieved by Max Verstappen on the first day of testing. But this would not be his only great time, since the Monegasque managed to go below 1.33 in several more attempts.
We had to wait more than an hour to see Alonso's first good lap: 1.34.027. A turn that showed the possible potential that the 'AMR24' may have during next Saturday's race, since the Spaniard achieved it with the C3 (medium) compound and without opening the DRS.
A morning in which Aston Martin confirmed on its 'X' account that it was testing the balance of the car with the new rear wing through sensors to check how the car channels the air flow.
The two-time world champion's best time was achieved on lap 17 of the 31 he ran, with a time of 1.33.053 that placed him in fourth place, 1.3 seconds behind the time achieved by Leclerc and improving his best lap. on Wednesday (1:33.385). Thus, the Asturian continues to accumulate running time with the AMR24 and, despite not having yet lowered the 1.33 barrier, the impressions shown by the car are quite positive.
He was not the only world champion on the track in the morning, as Hamilton also took to the track. The Mercedes team continues with its test plan of not giving many clues about the maximum performance of the car and the Englishman finished close to Aston Martin's times, less than two tenths and after being, with 39 laps, the second driver who more rolled only behind the 40 of Yuki Tsunoda (Visa Cash RB).
As for Red Bull, if this Wednesday Max Verstappen scared the rest of the teams with a display of times, surpassing his closest pursuer by more than a second, 'Checo' Pérez adopted a much lower profile trying to report behavioral data of the 'RB20' with the harder compound. The Mexican was the one who completed the fewest laps with 20 and finished fourth in the time table with a record of 1.32.879, yes, with the medium compound (C3).
One of the great confirmations of Thursday morning was once again McLaren. At the end of Wednesday's tests, the 'papaya' team confirmed with Lando Norris' second place that Zac Brown's team aspires to be in the fight from the first Grand Prix, continuing with the good results with which it ended 2023. This time it was the Australian Oscar Piastri who supported Leclerc with his 1.32.328.
A very interesting day that was helping the teams to continue understanding their cars, but it ended almost at the halfway point. And with one hour and 47 minutes left, a drainage gap came loose and ended up colliding with Charles Leclerc's Ferrari, damaging its flat bottom. Despite the efforts of the track marshals to correct the problem, race management decided to end the session and increase the afternoon session by one more hour.