Leclerc: The time sheets don’t mean anything

Carlos Sainz went fastest of all on the second day of the fastest pre-season test in Bahrain, that is until Haas ran that extra hour in the afternoon when all others stopped, and comeback kid Kevin Magnussen went over three tenths faster than the Spaniard.

Nevertheless the Scuderia seem to have a solid car despite the team going out of their way to downplay their form, which is the name of the game during testing, something Mercedes and Red Bull do as well, during the the sandbagging fest going on in Bahrain.

Speaking after Friday's running in Bahrain, Charles Leclerc said: "Another session with a lot of tests completed this morning. We are learning a lot about our car as well as the tyres, which are still relatively new to us.

"The balance seems to be good and I feel comfortable so far, but we have to keep in mind that the time sheets don’t mean anything and there is still a lot more to come from our competitors.

"What is positive is that we have been consistent and have had no issues so far. We will keep working to learn as much as we can on our final day tomorrow," the Monegasque concluded.

His teammate Carlos Sainz, talked about a positive day despite continuously changing track conditions.

Sainz said in the team's press release: "A bit of a strange afternoon with track conditions changing a lot from run to run, especially the strong wind which made it difficult to be consistent on the short runs and to get a good understanding of each compound and how they compared to one another.

"We will analyse everything tonight and prepare a good run plan for tomorrow, as there are quite a few things I still want to test on the last day. In general, another positive day for the team," Sainz concluded.

Sainz will kick off the team's testing efforts on the final day in Bahrain in the morning session before handing over the F1-75 to Leclerc for the afternoon running.