Zhou Guanyu goes fastest for Alfa Romeo on day 2 of F1 2023 pre-season testing

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• Zhou Guanyu goes fastest overall on softest C5 tyre
• Fernando Alonso again among the fastest for Aston Martin
• See below for the full driver schedule

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Zhou Guanyu finished the second day of F1’s pre-season testing at the top of the timesheet after a late lap on the softest-compound C5 tyre.

The Alfa Romeo driver completed 133 laps as one of three drivers, alongside Fernando Alonso and Logan Sargeant, who spent both morning and afternoon sessions in the car. Other teams split the day between team-mates.

Max Verstappen and Alonso, who ended yesterday first and second fastest, followed Zhou in Friday’s classification, ahead of Nyck de Vries in the AlphaTauri.

George Russell, however, ended his afternoon session early when his Mercedes broke down with hydraulic issues. He lost the final 90min of the day and competed the fewest laps.

Scroll down for the fastest times from the second day of testing, and for more updates posted during the sessions.

Driver	Team	Lap time	Gap	Laps completed
Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1min 31.610sec		133
Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1min 31.650sec	+0.040sec	47
Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1min 32.205sec	+0.595sec	130
Nyck De Vries	AlphaTauri	1min 32.222sec	+0.612sec	74
Nico Hulkenberg	Haas	1min 32.466sec	+0.856sec	68
Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1min 32.486sec	+0.876sec	70
Logan Sargeant	Williams	1min 32.549sec	+0.939sec	154
Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1min 32.725sec	+1.115sec	68
Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1min 33.175sec	+1.565sec	74
Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1min 33.186sec	+1.576sec	59
Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1min 33.442sec	+1.832sec	67
Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1min 33.490sec	+1.880sec	49
George Russell	Mercedes	1min 33.614sec	+2.004sec	26
Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1min 33.751sec	+2.141sec	76
Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1min 33.954sec	+2.344sec	72
Lando Norris	McLaren	1min 35.522sec	+3.912sec	65
Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1min 34.708sec	+4.098sec	85

16:18 – Action in the pit-lane

Logan Sargeant has parked his car outside the Williams garage, with warning lights appearing on the rear wing – signalling an issue.

Simultaneously, Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo broke down at the end of the pit lane before heading out onto the circuit. China’s first F1 driver had parked his car in preparation for a practice start but had issues pulling away. A brief red flag was shown, whilst the Alfa Romeo was recovered.

 

15.30pm – An hour remains

Max Verstappen has continued to lead the field on the C3 tyre, followed by the AlphaTauri of Nyck de Vries on the C4 and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso on the C3 – both drivers trailing the Dutchman by over seven tenths.

Nico Hulkenberg Haas is close behind, the German only eight tenths behind the leader and almost a second quicker than his teammate Kevin Magnussen. Of course, this difference has little meaning due to the un-competitive nature of testing.

In similar fashion to his new teammate, Oscar Piastri has shown his ability to post competitive times despite the teams underwhelming performance so far. The Aussie currently sits ninth in the standings.

15:03pm – Mercedes brings out second red flag of pre-season testing

George Russell has ground to a halt with a suspected hydraulic failure with just 1hour and 30mins remaining in Friday’s afternoon session. In a critical period for the teams, where push runs become more frequent, the stranded Mercedes has caused the second red flag of this years pre-season testing – reducing the overall running time for the rest of the field.

It is currently unclear if Mercedes and Russell will be able to compete when testing resumes.

 

2.00pm – Verstappen goes fastest and McLaren struggle

Max Verstappen returned to add to his already impressive lap tally, setting the fastest lap of testing so far on the C3 tyre (1min 31.650sec) – eight tenths clear of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

This afternoon will be the Dutchman’s final appearance during pre-season testing ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 3.

McLaren have continued to struggle after a limited first day of testing. CEO Zak Brown has admitted that the team have “missed targets”, with Lando Norris also appearing to be hesitant about the MCL60’s performance.

Oscar Piastri is currently leading the team on the timesheets – still 2.3sec slower than Verstappen.

11.30am – Day 2 morning classification

A red flag test concluded the second morning of F1 testing, with Carlos Sainz leading the way for Ferrari at the top of the timesheet.

Whilst Logan Sargeant was just 0.063 seconds off the pace on the softest tyre compound, it was Fernando Alonso that impressed once again in an Aston Martin that has up to now been widely regarded as a midfield contender. The Spaniard was four-tenths back on Sainz as the session drew to a close, followed by Zhou Guanyu and Kevin Magnussen.

Sergio Perez made his first appearance on-track for Red Bull and followed a similar path to his teammate, completing a solid 76 laps of the Sakhir circuit, with his fastest time 1.2sec behind the leader.

Yuki Tsunoda completed the most laps of the session with 85.

Driver	Team	Lap time	Gap	Laps completed
Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	1min 32.486sec		70
Logan Sargeant	Williams	1min 32.549sec	+0.063sec	74
Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1min 32.969sec	+0.483sec	64
Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	1min 33.170sec	+0.684sec	43
Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1min 33.442sec	+0.956sec	67
Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1min 33.490sec	+1.004sec	49
Sergio Perez	Red Bull	1min 33.751sec	+1.265sec	76
Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1min 33.954sec	+1.468sec	72
Lando Norris	McLaren	1min 35.522sec	+3.036sec	65
Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1min 35.708sec	+3.222sec	85

8am – Magnussen tops timesheet as teams gather data

With an hour gone of the session, Kevin Magnussen finds himself at the top of the timesheet with the most laps completed – 15.

As the clock ticked over, Carlos Sainz then went a full second quicker with a 1min 32.653 lap, with both set on medium compound tyres.

But this session isn’t where you’ll find drivers out to set their fastest times. We’ve seen more cars go out with aero rakes to check the correlation between the real-world and simulation data. A few lock-ups for Logan Sargeant indicate that the US rookie is still coming to terms with his Williams, with no time set so far.

 

7am – Day 2 of testing begins

Day 2 of Formula 1 testing has begun, in what has so far been a metronomic display by the 2023 cars.

Felipe Drugovich has been the only driver to break down on track, with an electrical issue affecting his Aston Martin on Day 1, and teams have largely been running through their programmes, piling on the miles.

After topping the table yesterday after a full day of running, Max Verstappen hands over to Sergio Perez for today’s morning session before returning for the faster afternoon session which runs into the evening. That will be his last, wioth Perez due to drive throughout tomorrow