Ferrari Hits Another Drain Snafu, Tops Time Sheets in F1 Pre-Season Test Day 2

The inaugural day of Formula 1 pre-season testing turned up what most of us already knew: Red Bull Racing is still the team to beat and will very likely get back to winning once the season gets underway. Max Verstappen drove the equivalent of two races around the Bahrain International Circuit on Wednesday, lapping more than a second faster than the rest. Thursday offered a little more variety, with Ferrari and Mercedes logging plenty of laps and a quicker pace than the day before.

But first, a bit of deja vu.

It wasn't long ago that a Vegas manhole cover wreaked havoc on the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, and now it was Charles Leclerc's turn to endure a similar freak accident. A drain cover that came loose damaged Leclerc's floor, bringing the session to a premature end for a track inspection. Ferrari ultimately had to replace the entire floor of its SF-24 and run a shortened development program for the remainder of the day.

Also, it was Lewis Hamilton's turn to sample the W15 for the first time after sitting out Wednesday and listening to what his teammate George Russell had to say. The seven-time champ spent most of his day doing procedural runs, though he was able to set some faster lap times toward the end of the test. He drove 123 laps with a best time of 1:31.066—still 1.1 seconds off the fastest time set by the Ferrari, though that's hardly anything to go by at this point.

“It was a productive day out there,” Hamilton told F1.com. “We gathered lots of learnings about the W15, both in our long running and single lap work. We’ve clearly made an improvement with this year’s car and it’s much nicer to drive."

Hamilton will get back behind the wheel Friday morning for a quick rundown before passing things over to Russell in the afternoon.

Sergio Perez picked up where Max Verstappen left off yesterday, showing prominent pace and clocking 129 laps—six more than Hamilton. The Mexican focused on understanding the new car and also practiced setup readings ahead of next week's race.

“Generally speaking, it’s definitely a step forward in the right direction with the car,” Perez told F1.com. “It’s obviously a very tricky track, with the morning to the afternoon, dialing