Esteban Ocon set the pace on the second morning of the final pre-season Formula 1 test at Bahrain, as Williams suffered its first big setback of testing with a small on-track fire.
Ocon set his best time, a 1m34.276s, on C4 tyres in the second hour of the session, around 20 minutes before the main red-flag stoppage of the morning – shown when the rear brakes on Nicholas Latifi’s Williams caught fire.
Smoke was seen from the rear of the car as Latifi cruised round the track, but the Williams then spun off at Turn 12, with Latifi assisting the marshals in putting out the fire at the start of a recovery process that lasted around 30 minutes.
A small fire breaks out on the Williams car…
But thankfully fireman @NicholasLatifi is on hand to extinguish 👨🚒#F1Testing #F1 pic.twitter.com/VJWDvehJPV
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 11, 2022
Williams said there was fire damage to the rear of the car even if it was not as severe as the video footage implied, and that it would revise its afternoon run plan accordingly after assessing what repairs would be needed.
Latifi had completed just 12 laps before that and ended the session slowest of the 10 drivers, 5.569s off the pace.
Ocon’s best time was just 0.090s faster than the time set by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – though there was a tyre offset between the two, with the Ferrari on the mid-range C3 compound.
The top two were among three drivers who managed more than 50 laps for the morning, George Russell being the other for Mercedes. He recorded a session high of 67 laps.
Max Verstappen was third fastest in the Red Bull, 1.598s down on Ocon but using the C2 tyre, with Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin the only other car within two seconds of the best time.
Vettel completed 46 laps but lost significant time when he had to stop out on track. The four-time world champion stopped his car on an unused part of the circuit, however, which meant the session did not have to be halted.
Lando Norris was fifth-fastest but McLaren’s morning appeared to be complicated by a repeat of the brake issues it struggled with on day one. Norris was limited to just 29 laps in the MCL36.
Apart from Latifi, the only drivers to complete fewer laps than Norris were Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo, 25) and Mick Schumacher (Haas, 23).
Haas’s session was ended early by an exhaust problem, though it has been granted an extra hour of running in the afternoon with Kevin Magnussen after missing the Thursday morning session.
🚩 RED FLAG (again) 🚩
Bottas stops on track and that will see us to the end of the first session ⏱#F1Testing #F1 pic.twitter.com/ssW2p2orgJ
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 11, 2022
After initial early laps, Bottas did appear again right at the end of the session – following a procedural check of the red-flag system – but promptly came to a stop on track.
He ended the morning seventh in the times ahead of Schumacher, with the pair sandwiched by the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda and the Mercedes of Russell.
Session results
1. Ocon (Alpine) 1m34.276s, C4, 59 laps
2. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m34.366s, C3, 54 laps
3. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m35.874s, C2, 45 laps
4. Vettel (Aston Martin) 1m36.020s, C3, 46 laps
5. Norris (McLaren) 1m36.354s, C2 P, 29 laps
6. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m36.802s, C3, 44 laps
7. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m36.987s, C2, 25 laps
8. Schumacher (Haas) 1m37.846s, C2, 23 laps
9. Russell (Mercedes) 1m38.585s, C2 P, 67 laps
10. Latifi (Williams) 1m39.845s, C2 P, 12 laps
