Kevin Magnussen fastest in Bahrain through 2 days

Red Bull improves but still troubled by problems

Kevin Magnussen and his McLaren MP4-29 have gone fastest overall on Day 2 of testing in Bahrain, bringing a close to the first half of the second pre-season test of the F1 2014 season.

Magnussen’s fastest lap came at the very end of the day just before the chequered flag fell. His lap of 1:34.910 was just under two seconds faster than Hulkenberg’s fastest lap yesterday and a just less than three seconds faster than the pace set by Alonso through the morning session.

Mercedes powered cars led the way again for the second consecutive day.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was the fastest man on track through the morning session, posting a lap time of 1:37.700. Though fastest before the lunch break, Alonso was still a second shy of the fastest lap posted by Nico Hulkenberg in yesterdays’ afternoon session.

Unlike the delay yesterday, todays’ morning session got underway as scheduled with a green light at 09:00. The morning lasted just 5 minutes though when Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes car stopped with a faulty sensor display warning. Later in the morning Rosberg caused a second red flag to the session as a problem brought an end to his race simulation. Regardless of the problems, Rosberg still managed 34 laps before the afternoon started.

Red Bull spent the first hour of the morning in their garage once again, fitting new parts to the car that had arrived from the factory overnight. Vettel did manage some running time though; helping to discover new problems on the car once the old problems had been fixed. Regardless, Vettel had finally succeeding in pushing the RB10 through 26 laps before lunch time but his session finished as his car came to a halt on track, causing a red flag to the session.

Toro Rosso and Williams also made a strong recovery this morning to their testing woes from yesterday. Jean-Eric Vergne completed 53 laps before 13:00 but also came to a stop on track with a problem, whilst Williams’ Valterri Bottas completed 43 laps and the second fastest time of the morning.

Telemetry issues held up Caterham’s Kobayashi this morning but the car was ready to run by the time the afternoon started, whilst McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen was help to just 8 laps this morning. The team specified no specific problem though and the car was ready to go by lunch time.

Battery issues plagued the newly christened Lotus E22 on the first day of testing but Grosjean put 15 laps on the car this morning and Marussia’s Max Chilton put another 14 laps on the MR03 before lunch time but was a full 5 seconds back on the pace of the mornings’ fastest.

Fernando Alonso’s strong run in his Ferrari F14T continued into the afternoon as the Spaniard added an additional 66 laps to the 31 achieved in the morning. At the end of the day, Alonso sat third fastest with 97 laps of mileage on the car.

Williams will also be pleased with their day. After a strong start to the morning, Bottas ended with a whopping 116 laps under his belt; 19 laps ahead of Fernando Alonso’s total laps today. Bottas would settle for the fifth fastest time.

The afternoon session also proved successful for Red Bull. Vettel ended the day with 59 laps completed. Although only seventh on the time sheets, Red Bull have now completed more laps today than they did combined over the past 5 days of testing in both Spain and Bahrain so far. Red Bull sister team Toro Rosso also had a more successful day than that yesterday. After a slow start to the morning, Jean-Eric Vergne finished the day with 58 laps on the STR9 compared to Kyvat’s five yesterday.

Struggling in the morning session, Kobayashi had a good run throughout the afternoon, putting 66 laps on the Caterham and going sixth fastest. Caterham will also be pleased to have broken into the 1:39’s now, putting them within 5 seconds of the pace set by McLaren.

After an IT issue limited Jules Bianchi to just three laps yesterday, the Marussia MR03 was hit with a fuel system problem today limiting second year driver Max Chilton to just 17 laps. He would end the day over 7 seconds off the front runners pace and at the bottom of the time sheets.

Day 3 of the Formula 1 pre-season test in Bahrain commences tomorrow, February 21st 2014.