Lewis Hamilton spins on second test day as Daniel Ricciardo top again

Ricciardo in his McLaren during testing. — Photo: © LAT Images

Pre-season Testing

Hamilton spins on second test day as Ricciardo top again

McLaren builds on its strong Friday form in Bahrain

Sam Hall

Saturday 13 March 2021 12:05 Updated: 12:21

Daniel Ricciardo again topped the morning session of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

McLaren enjoyed a positive opening day on Friday and this trend continued into Saturday morning with Ricciardo fastest with a lap of one minute 32.215secs, that time marginally slower than that on Friday morning.

Upon his return to the sport, Fernando Alonso pushed the Australian throughout the session in his Alpine with the two trading fastest times.

Article continues under video

Esteban Ocon was granted a full day of running on Friday with Alonso handed the same courtesy for the second day.

The opening day of testing had seen the sessions red-flagged once, a rarity for pre-season, but Hamilton caused a second after beaching his Mercedes W12 in the turn 13 gravel.

Prior to this incident, Hamilton had been wracking up the laps to atone for Mercedes' lack of Friday running, and the seven-time champion looked considerably more comfortable in the car.

Just 25 minutes after the track returned to green-flag conditions, Hamilton returned to the circuit and, with 52 minutes remaining on the clock, he surpassed his 42-lap total of yesterday. In total, Hamilton completed 58 laps.

On Friday a gearshift problem hurt Mercedes, restricting the team to only six laps of running in the morning with Valtteri Bottas at the wheel due to a gearbox change.

On Saturday, and with the Aston Martin also sporting a Mercedes gearbox, Sebastian Vettel's running was severely compromised due to his own gearbox issue that kept him in the garage for the majority of the session.

Carlos Sainz did not appear comfortable in his Ferrari, spinning at turn seven and destroying one set of the medium C3 compound tyre.

Topping the lap counter was Haas rookie Nikita Mazepin, with the Russian completing 76 laps while Antonio Giovinazzi managed 73 laps in his Alfa Romeo.