On the second day of the 2025 Formula 1 pre-season testing, Carlos Sainz led the pack for Williams, clocking the fastest time ahead of the two Ferrari drivers, while McLaren opted to keep their true pace under wraps.

During the day, Sainz and Liam Lawson from Red Bull were the only drivers to complete the entire session, as other teams took the opportunity to rotate their drivers at lunchtime.

This allowed Sainz to accumulate an impressive total of 127 laps, starting his afternoon stint with a solid performance on the medium compound C3 tires.

Sainz’s lap time of 1m29.348s on the C3 tires surpassed the morning benchmark set by Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari, edging him out by just 0.031 seconds.

In the later hours, Charles Leclerc took the wheel of the Ferrari and experimented with the softer C4 tires. Unfortunately, he encountered slower traffic from Isack Hadjar’s team during his best lap attempt, finishing the day in third place, just 0.083 seconds behind Sainz.

Both Sainz and Leclerc had brief moments of losing control on track as intermittent drizzle and chilly conditions affected the teams’ testing programs.

Mercedes driver George Russell had a strong morning session, finishing in fourth, followed closely by teammate Kimi Antonelli’s best afternoon time, as well as Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin and Lawson.

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At the champion team McLaren, Lando Norris took over from Oscar Piastri in the afternoon session, gradually making his way onto the track.

Norris focused on long-run performance, achieving the day’s fastest middle sector on a late lap, although he was unable to complete that attempt.

Meanwhile, Haas maintained a strategy of running on heavier fuel loads, resulting in noticeably slower times compared to their competitors.

Thursday Times

1. Sainz (Williams) 1m29.348s
2. Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.031s
3. Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.083s
4. Russell (Mercedes) +0.430s
5. Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.436s
6. Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.881s
7. Lawson (Red Bull) +0.904s
8. Doohan (Alpine) +1.020s
9. Gasly (Alpine) +1.082s
10. Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +1.327s
11. Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.352s
12. Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +1.445s
13. Piastri (McLaren) +1.473s
14. Norris (McLaren) +1.534s
15. Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.709s
16. Hulkenberg (Sauber) +2.109s
17. Ocon (Haas) +3.723s
18. Bearman (Haas) +5.024s