Manama, Feb. 24 (BNA): Zhou Guanyu enjoyed his second day of Aramco pre-season 2023 Formula 1 testing today at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, topping the schedule by four hundredths of a thousand. Second gap ahead of double Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen.
Zhou drove his rival Alfa Romeo C43 to a very fast lap time of 1 minute 31.610 seconds around the 5.412 kilometer BIC course. His mark was set during the afternoon and was the best of the day overall.
Testing concludes on Saturday with one last full day of running at the Bahrain International Centre. The morning session will be from 10 am to 2 pm, and the afternoon session from 3 pm to 7:30 pm. BIC will welcome fans back on Saturday.
Those eager to get a glimpse of the 2023 cars in action can purchase their tickets at 5 BD apiece, with tickets for children from 3 to 12 years old priced at 2.5 BD each.
Tickets will be available at the gate, at bahraingp.com, or by calling the BIC hotline at +973-17450000. Those who purchased their F1 tickets before February 1 have free access to the test.
Gates will be open from midday to 7pm to fans. All those attending F1 pre-season testing will be able to follow the action from BIC’s main grandstand, which overlooks F1 Pit Lane, the teams’ garages and the circuit’s main track.
Chu was one of three drivers who took to the circuit all day for their teams, completing a total of 133 laps.
He finished 0.040 seconds clear of Verstappen in the final classification for day two, as Red Bull Racing covered 47 laps during the afternoon session in the RB19. Zhou’s second day was more than a second faster than Verstappen’s fastest lap during the first day of testing.
The red flags came out briefly this evening after George Russell’s Mercedes F1 W14 stalled on track and had to be hoisted.
Fernando Alonso was third overall for the Aston Martin, 0.595 seconds off Zhou’s leading pace. He also tested all day and completed 130 laps in his rival’s AMR23.
Nyck de Vries for AlphaTauri finished fourth 0.612 seconds from first in his AT04, while Nico Hülkenberg finished fifth for Haas, 0.856 seconds behind Zhou in the VF-23.
Carlos Sainz drove Ferrari’s SF-23 to sixth in the times, 0.876 seconds off the lead. His best time was from the morning session, completing 70 laps. Williams rookie Logan Sargeant trailed 0.939 seconds while setting the most laps of the day with 154 in his rival’s FW45, while Leclerc completed the top eight in Ferrari’s second race by 1.115 seconds.
Oscar Piastri was ninth after leading 1.565 seconds behind Zou during the afternoon in his McLaren MCL60, and Pierre Gasly completed the top ten in the Alpine 1.576s from the summit in the A523.
As for the rest of the final classification from 11th to 17th respectively, it appeared on the second day Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Russell of Mercedes, Sergio Perez of Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton of the other Mercedes and Lando Norris of the second McLaren. and Yuki Tsunoda from AlphaTauri.
On the final day of pre-season testing on Saturday, Perez will be the only Red Bull driver all day, as will Valtteri Bottas for Alfa Romeo and Alexander Albon for Williams.
Leclerc will test in the morning for Ferrari before making way for Sainz, while also sharing duties for Russell and Hamilton for Mercedes, Gasly and Ocon for Albin, Piastri and Norris for McLaren, Hulkenberg and Magnussen for Haas and de Vries and Tsunoda for AlphaTauri.
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