Carlos Sainz has admitted that he felt responsible for the cancellation of Thursday morning’s test in Bahrain after pleading with a marshal at the side of the track. The session was red-flagged with over an hour left on the clock due to a broken drain at the entry kerb of Turn 11 at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The FIA later confirmed that the morning session would not resume, with repairs taking longer than expected. Sainz, who was watching Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc on track, revealed that he attempted to lobby the marshals to do something about the situation before the red flags were brought out.
“I was actually standing right in front of the drain cover when it came up,” the Spaniard told Sky Sports. “I went on track to see and I was looking at it like: ‘Yellow flag it, yellow flag it, somebody’s going to take it’. Then my team-mate came and took it, so I feel like it could have been avoided, in a way.
“I missed it by one lap because I went to speak to the marshal and when I was speaking to him [I said]: ‘Yellow flag it, yellow flag it’. So yeah, I feel a bit to blame.”
Ferrari needed to replace the floor of Leclerc’s car after he ran over the drain cover just moments before the session was red-flagged. Lewis Hamilton also drove over the busted drain cover but did not appear to pick up any damage to the bottom of his Mercedes car.
Leclerc was quickest in the morning session in spite of the incident, with Oscar Piastri over five-tenths slower than his Ferrari rival in second place. Sainz went on to take an early lead in the afternoon session, which was extended to five hours as a result of the earlier stoppage.
Teams only have three days of testing, with each driver getting one and a half days behind the wheel ahead of next weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. Max Verstappen was the fastest driver on track at the end of the first day, with the Dutchman finishing over a second clear of his closest challenger Lando Norris.
Verstappen already looks to be the firm favourite to win this year’s Drivers’ Championship as he chases his fourth individual title in as many seasons. However, it remains to be seen if Red Bull’s ongoing investigation into team principal Christian Horner will risk derailing their hopes of leading another successful campaign.
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