Carlos Sainz Jnr finished his allocation of pre-season testing for Williams by putting them on top of the times on the second day of running in Bahrain.
The driver, who was fastest in pre-season testing last year for Ferrari, posted the quickest time of the test so far. He set a 1’29.348 shortly after returning to the cockpit following the lunch break.The two cars of his former team got within a tenth of a second of his time, Lewis Hamilton second for Ferrari ahead of Charles Leclerc.
Sainz was one of two drivers to complete the entire day solo. He logged 127 laps, the most of any driver. Liam Lawson, the other driver who had a car to himself all day, fell short of the 100-lap count after being confined to his garage towards the end of the morning session with an apparent power unit problem.
There was little to separate the Mercedes drivers, George Russell just six-thousandths of a second faster than Andrea Kimi Antonelli as they completed the top five.
Yesterday’s pace-setters McLaren were further down the order but seemed to have plenty of pace in hand. Towards the end of the afternoon session Lando Norris set a series of personal best times in the first two sectors, and the fastest time of all in the middle sector, but chose not to complete his laps. He and Oscar Piastri ended the day ahead of only the Sauber and Haas drivers.
The Haas pair occupied the bottom places on the times sheets for the second day in a row. As yesterday, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman appeared to prioritise high-fuel runs.
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Bahrain test day two times
| Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps | Tyres |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Williams | FW47 | 1’29.348 | 127 | C3 | |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | SF-25 | 1’29.379 | 0.031 | 45 | C3 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF-25 | 1’29.431 | 0.083 | 83 | C3 |
| 4 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | W16 | 1’29.778 | 0.430 | 71 | C3 |
| 5 | 12 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | W16 | 1’29.784 | 0.436 | 87 | C3 |
| 6 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | AMR25 | 1’30.229 | 0.881 | 57 | C3 |
| 7 | 30 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | RB21 | 1’30.252 | 0.904 | 91 | C3 |
| 8 | 7 | Jack Doohan | Alpine | A525 | 1’30.368 | 1.020 | 80 | C3 |
| 9 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | A525 | 1’30.430 | 1.082 | 40 | C3 |
| 10 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 02 | 1’30.675 | 1.327 | 94 | C4 |
| 11 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | AMR25 | 1’30.700 | 1.352 | 45 | C3 |
| 12 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | 02 | 1’30.793 | 1.445 | 46 | C3 |
| 13 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | MCL39 | 1’30.821 | 1.473 | 44 | C3 |
| 14 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | MCL39 | 1’30.882 | 1.534 | 77 | C3 |
| 15 | 5 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | C45 | 1’31.057 | 1.709 | 80 | C3 |
| 16 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | C45 | 1’31.457 | 2.109 | 56 | C3 |
| 17 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | VF-25 | 1’33.071 | 3.723 | 69 | C3 |
| 18 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | VF-25 | 1’34.372 | 5.024 | 66 | C3 |
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BasCB (@bascb)
27th February 2025, 16:13
I really am curious to see whether Williams has managed to build a car that belongs in the top 10. Also, Red Bull don’t seem to be quite there – the car looks like it’s a handful, yesterday they were working on the bodywork, today they said they did an “oil change / service” which cut their running time short, doing the least amount of laps of anyone and they aren’t on the pace either it seems.
During the broadcast the commentators mentioned that AM had commented that they are too far away from the pace to be a podium contender.
S Arkazam
27th February 2025, 16:23
I just spoke to somebody with a lot of experience* and he guaranteed me that the Williams is certainly one of the 10 best F1 cars this year :P
* statistician.
Henrik
27th February 2025, 20:19
;-) brilliant comment, cant believe no-one else picked up how good it is. LOL
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th February 2025, 4:27
It’s not, it would be more brilliant to say it’s in the top 5 if you turn out to be right.
An Sionnach
27th February 2025, 16:32
Maybe last years’ Williams was a top ten car more of the time already? They just needed a driver. Remember that Sainz set a faster time at the end of season test than either Williams driver did over the race weekend.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
27th February 2025, 17:01
That’s no guideline for anything.
An Sionnach
27th February 2025, 18:37
It directly followed the GP and Sainz was two tenths faster than Albon was in qualifying… in his first outing in the car.
El Pollo Loco
27th February 2025, 22:21
Yup, it was telling and representative. Just like Colapinto immediately being as fast as him.
Before Williams, Albon was considered an average driver at best if given the benefit of the doubt for his struggles at RBR. Sainz is the same tier as Russell and Norris. So, no doubt that car was not being driven to its full potential.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th February 2025, 4:29
Yes, not surprised to see sainz (if this is representative) outperform albon, considering that while he’s not as fast as the fastest drivers, like verstappen, leclerc, norris, he’s definitely in the next tier.
anon
27th February 2025, 18:38
An Sionnach, it’s not really that meaningful when several other drivers also finished in abnormal positions – most people don’t think that Sauber was capable of fighting for a podium finish in 2024 because Hulkenberg finished 4th in that post-season test, for example.
We also have the complication that the primary purpose of the post-season test was to test the 2025 spec tyres, and it’s unclear how they compare to the 2024 spec tyres. Additionally, because it was to collect data for the 2025 spec tyres, Pirelli brought a wider range of tyres than normal to this circuit, and that did also include the option of a softer tyre compound than used in the race.
An Sionnach
27th February 2025, 18:48
Your Hulkenberg example is not similar at all. Fair point on the tyres, though. That would give Sainz a different car to the one Albon had a few days earlier.
anon
27th February 2025, 20:41
An Sionnach, the point about Hulkenberg was intended to be somewhat absurd to demonstrate that picking out a headline time from that session gives a rather unrepresentative picture of the situation and that it’s not really valuable to just look at that in isolation.
To that end, I’d caution against reading too much into the individual times themselves. There were those at the track who noted that, whilst some of the other teams did do race simulations, Williams’s stints tended to be shorter (8-10 laps) during that session. The impression from those trackside was that the car seemed reasonable, but did seem to have some instability under braking – it’s possibly therefore in the midfield mix, but the different run plan does mean that it’s a bit difficult to tell exactly where they lie and the results may be slightly flattering them.
Jojo
27th February 2025, 23:15
Sainz was using the super softs in that post season test in Abu Dhabi, that hadn’t been available during the qualifying. Not saying that he won’t bring better results (let’s hope he does for Williams), but that test doesn’t actually show it. We’ll get a truer picture in Australia.
I do rate Sainz pretty highly though. We’re always told how good Leclerc is over one lap, but Sainz managed to out qualify Leclerc close to 40% of the time last year.
stefano (@alfa145)
27th February 2025, 20:01
I usually track the pre-season tests to see if any team manages to put a car in the top 3/10 or top 5/20 position, consistently every day of the test. So tomorrow will be telling. Usually, if it is the case, that team has a very strong season. Doesn’t mean championship contender, but something like the first Aston Martin + Alonso season, with podiums at every race in the first half of the season
An Sionnach
27th February 2025, 16:34
Not that it means much to compare testing times… but here are last year’s ones:
https://www.racefans.net/2024/02/23/the-key-data-from-f1s-only-pre-season-test-of-2024/
Arthur Zakaryan (@arthurgd3)
27th February 2025, 18:16
It doesn’t but it’s still interesting to compare. Sainz’s best time from last year would be something like 5th and 6th with the times from this year so far and his best time today is six tenths faster than last year, that’s quite a lot and in a Williams no less.
Whether that’s cause for excitement if your a Sainz/Williams fan is yet to be determined but I can’t see any negatives to this fact either. I’m a big fan of Sainz so naturally I’m happy for this seasons prospects.
An Sionnach
27th February 2025, 18:39
Considering what Sainz showed in last year’s car, it might have been one that was just never driven properly, other than by Colapinto when he didn’t crash.
Arthur Zakaryan (@arthurgd3)
27th February 2025, 18:46
It’s hard to truly gauge concrete conclusions from these tests given we don’t know what test programs the teams are on between drivers but Sainz has definitely improved his driving. Before I wouldn’t have placed him much higher than Albon but going from what we saw from him last year in the Ferrari against who many regard as the better driver, Leclerc, Sainz has definitely upped his driving and if these test times translate to true race pace this season, Albon definitely has his work cut out for him to keep up.
Macademianut (@macademianut)
27th February 2025, 19:44
Comparison to last year’s qualifying times:
https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2024/races/1229/bahrain/qualifying Best Q3 time: 1:29.179
An Sionnach
27th February 2025, 20:43
That’s interesting. I expect nobody is going all out in testing. It will be interesting to see where last year’s pole time would get you this year.
PacificPR (@streydt)
27th February 2025, 16:38
Seems like Haas has filled it’s sandbag’s?
El Pollo Loco
27th February 2025, 23:29
They’ve just been doing a ton of heavy fuel running / race sims. It’d make no sense for them to sandbag.
Jere (@jerejj)
27th February 2025, 16:52
At least the circuit’s lighting infrastructure worked today, although I’m surprised the light bulbs were turned on earlier than usual as they’re normally turned on between 16:30 & 17:00 in pre-season testing, but today, they were on by the time I returned to watching, which was 16:04 local.
I also finally found out Lawson’s DRS indication light pattern, which is merely the first two green lights from the left becoming lit when DRS becomes activatable & turning off when activating.
Antonelli’s equivalent DRS light pattern is still a mystery to me as I didn’t see anything turning on when crossing activation lines, albeit I found out that his display outlook is the same as Hamilton’s, so he more or less has everything the same regarding the overall steering wheel layout design.
Ben
27th February 2025, 18:22
That Mclaren race run will have plenty of teams worried tonight.
RH
27th February 2025, 19:56
Yeah, its on another league. That last stint especially with 1s+ margin.
El Pollo Loco
27th February 2025, 23:31
Indeed. Nobody was even close. And you can only explain away so much by speculating about different power settings. And why would McLaren want to run high power settings anyway? To show off? lol
Dane
27th February 2025, 20:34
Antonelli is really close to matching Russell’s times already. I thought he might take some time to get on George’s level.
El Pollo Loco
27th February 2025, 23:35
I’d be really happy to see Kimi wipe the floor with Georgie Porgie, but I won’t jump to any conclusions just. However, judging by how most of the rated rookies are going, it just reinforces what I’ve long said: real stars show up right away. They don’t need multiple seasons “to get on the pace.” Some need some time to gain consistency and hone their race craft, but that’s about it.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
28th February 2025, 4:33
Indeed, and while I thought antonelli could be decent, being on russell’s level immediately would exceed my expectations and explain why mercedes were so in a hurry to put him in the car.