THE WORLD Madrid

Madrid

Updated Friday, February 23, 2024-19:24

  • Second day Sainz leads and a sewer truncates Alonso's program

  • First day Verstappen terrifies, with Alonso in good line

The grate of a sinkhole in Turn 11 once again affected, for the second consecutive day, the preseason tests in Sakhir.

The work to seal the sewer was delayed for 75 minutes and the FIA ​​had to eliminate the one-hour break between the morning and afternoon sessions so that the teams did not lose filming time.

A bumpy closure to the already narrow margin for preparation.

In any case,

Charles Leclerc

brought the hope to Ferrari with the best time on Friday (1:30.322) and a great pace in the long runs, although behind Red Bull.

The overwhelming performance of

Max Versappen

with the Pirelli C3 once again placed the RB20 as the great favorite for the first round of the World Championship, which will take place on March 2 on this same track.

In any case, the fuel load of the three-time world champion could have been lower than that of his rivals, which would have given him a certain advantage.

Unlike

Mad Max

, Leclerc did test C4 and C5, the softest compounds in the range.

During his four hours at the wheel of the SF-24, the Monegasque emulated, during the race simulations, the times of the top candidate for the title.

The solidity of the red car, with great performance and less tire degradation, raises hopes within the

Scuderia

.

No news from Mercedes

Aston Martin and McLaren also focused on testing their cars for the long runs, although with mixed results.

In the morning,

Lando Norris

only completed 20 laps with the MCL-34 due to a clutch problem.

Meanwhile,

Fernando Alonso

took over from

Lance Stroll

at 1:20 p.m., with race simulations in line with Ferrari and far superior to those of

Oscar Piastri

with McLaren.

Mercedes deserved a separate chapter, where

George Russell

did not seem to squeeze the potential of his brand new W15 at any time.

Lewis Hamilton

, for his part, mounted C5 tires in search of a fast lap that had to be aborted too soon after a bad line.

Carlos Sainz

, for his part, was the third driver who accumulated the most mileage during the morning, with 60 laps, only surpassed by

Kevin Magnussen

(75) and

Daniel Ricciardo

(65).

The Madrid native, at least, closes the preseason with the best time of the three days, set on Thursday (1:29.921).

"I have enjoyed every lap. We have tried many different configurations to collect all the possible data. The car seems to be in a decent place," said the winner of the last Singapore GP.

"A podium doesn't seem realistic"

Sainz's moderate optimism contrasted, to a certain extent, with Alonso's vision, aware of the room for improvement of the AMR-24.

"This car is a step forward, but I think everyone takes a big step during the winter, so we'll have to see where we are next week," he admitted during his press conference.

"After seeing Verstappen two days ago, there are fewer options for everyone to win a race this year," admitted the two-time world champion.

Red Bull's superiority threatens to be repeated, so Alonso is skeptical.

"Right now 19 drivers will think they won't win the championship. It happens 99% of the time throughout your career. This is a brutal sport."

Likewise, when asked about the options of repeating the 2023 podium in Bahrain, he responded with some resignation: "I don't know, but right now it doesn't seem realistic."