{"id":369968,"date":"2024-02-22T23:34:59","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T00:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369968"},"modified":"2024-02-23T02:02:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T02:02:36","slug":"drain-cover-chaos-plunges-f1-testing-into-havoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369968","title":{"rendered":"Drain cover chaos plunges F1 testing into havoc"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The morning session \ufeffof day two of <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/f1\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Formula 1\">Formula 1<\/a> pre-season testing was cut short after a drain cover on the Sakhir circuit came loose and had to be repaired.<\/p>\n<p>In scenes similar to <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/motorsport\/las-vegas-grand-prix-2023-carlos-sainz-ferrari-destroyed-loose-manhole-cover-practice-session\/fce9c8f0-a6c9-4b88-b576-fbee204b946e\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Las Vegas&#x27; inaugural race \ufefflast year\">Las Vegas&#x27; inaugural race \ufefflast year<\/a>, both Lewis Hamilton&#x27;s Mercedes and Charles Leclerc&#x27;s Ferrari hit the cover at turn 11 with the floor of Leclerc&#x27;s car seriously damaged. It had to be taken to the pits to be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>While\ufeff tiny shards of carbon fibre flicked off the Mercedes at the main straight, no other damage was reported by the team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/top-50-players-2024-10-1-revealed\/337aa2a1-c666-4dcb-9e9f-d2d9bb8ced34\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Cleary the king as Nine&#x27;s top 10 NRL players named<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/news-2024-dani-alves-jailed-four-years-rape-barcelona-brazil\/52fb0790-4249-4b53-bbd7-1f604b67159c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ex-Barcelona star found guilty and jailed over rape case<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/nrl\/news-2024-brisbane-broncos-adam-reynolds-contract-premiership-phil-gould-exclusive\/e68d838a-7ac7-4a4a-98ab-fd53bbd99500\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Gould&#x27;s warning to Broncos after captain&#x27;s new deal<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"7de23f6b-f22b-4dcc-aea8-8255bc186374\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/7de23f6b-f22b-4dcc-aea8-8255bc186374\" alt=\"A loose drain cover on the Bahrain International Circuit brought the morning session of pre-season testing to a premature end.\" data-width=\"805\" data-height=\"453\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once testing resumed following a 40-minute delay, Ferrari&#x27;s Carlos Sainz set the pace, clocking 0.758 seconds faster than Red Bull rival Sergio Perez.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton, who will replace Sainz in red at the end of the season\ufeff, finished third fastest but was more than a second adrift of the SF-24.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/motorsport\/daniel-ricciardo\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Daniel Ricciardo\">Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> continued to draw attention, placing in the top five for the second straight day of testing.<\/p>\n<p>On the opening day of testing, reigning world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/motorsport\/formula-1-news-2024-preseason-testing-christian-horner-red-bull-racing-investigation-misconduct-allegations\/e34804d4-d4c2-4b13-8a7c-dc69e5779c5d\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Max Verstappen recorded the fastest time\">Max Verstappen recorded the fastest time<\/a> but was swapped out for his Red Bull teammate overnight.<\/p>\n<p>Despite Sainz&#x27;s efforts \u2014 with his hot lap of 1:29:921 quicker when compared to Verstappen&#x27;s of 1:31:344 \u2014 it is still thought that Red Bull is in the driver&#x27;s seat ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at the same venue next week.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;My initial feeling is that Red Bull unfortunately remains quite a bit ahead,&quot; Leclerc said afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They are in such a great momentum at the moment,&quot; added Mercedes&#x27; driver George Russell.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They started these new regulations on the front foot and they came here and have been solid ever since. So, they are definitely the favourites, definitely a step ahead of everybody else here in Bahrain.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They&#x27;ve had a massive winter no doubt, but that was to be expected.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Because of the premature end\ufeff to the morning session, coupled with a brake issue before the RB19 even hit the track, Perez did not pass over driving duties to Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p>Perez completed three laps during the opening session before returning to the team garage for some further work on his car.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"721dbfcf-1044-4d2f-8815-797a384c00cc\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/721dbfcf-1044-4d2f-8815-797a384c00cc\" alt=\"The front brake of Sergio Perez&#x27;s Red Bull briefly caught fire on day two of F1 pre-season testing.\" data-width=\"900\" data-height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Footage from within the pits briefly showed the front break of Perez&#x27;s car alight after overheating.<\/p>\n<p>One day of \ufeffpre-season testing remains before the 24-race regular season gets underway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The morning session \ufeffof day two of Formula 1 pre-season testing was cut short after a drain cover on the Sakhir circuit came loose and <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=369968\" title=\"Drain cover chaos plunges F1 testing into havoc\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":369970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369968"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369973,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369968\/revisions\/369973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/369970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}