Bahrain Test 2 – Day 2: Pérez Persists, Problems for Mercedes and Lotus

The second day of the final winter testing session of the 2014 season ended with the same leader as the day before, as Sergio Pérez maintained the top spot on the timesheet with a lap of 1:35.570, three-tenths slower than on the first day. The Mexican managed to complete over 100 laps.

Behind him, Fernando Alonso finished 64 milliseconds behind but, more importantly, was able to string together laps unlike Kimi Räikkönen, who suffered a technical problem midday yesterday. The Spaniard finished with a total of 122 laps, or 660 km, more than twice the distance of a Bahrain Grand Prix (57 laps, 308 km).

In third position, a returnee in the person of Daniel Ricciardo, who was finally able to set a relatively insignificant time considering last week’s times, but which allows Red Bull to appear higher on the timesheet than at the start of the season. The day had started relatively poorly though, as the Australian had to wait three hours to get his name on the board. He covered a total of 66 laps, ending the day with a reassuring 19-lap stint, a first for the RB10.

Two Mercedes-powered cars follow: Felipe Massa, driving the Williams, completed 103 laps and had a rather uneventful day, improving his times towards the end of the day. On the McLaren side, however, the day was disrupted by a problem that cost the British team nearly five hours, which explains the “low” total number of laps for Jenson Button (52).

Jules Bianchi was able to accumulate kilometers and therefore gather information while driving his Marussia MR03: a valuable run given the course of the tests so far.

Behind him, there’s Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, which had to prematurely end its testing due to a gearbox problem. For two consecutive days, the German team’s lap counter has been stuck at 89 laps. The lap counter is also stuck at 31 laps for Lotus, as Pastor Maldonado, responsible for one of the red flags, also had to cut his session short. It was another challenging day for Renault-powered cars, as Caterham saw its car catch fire at the end of the day.