Sainz Completely Smashes Last Year's Fastest Lap In Bahrain Pre-Season Testing

Carlos Sainz dramatically improved the fastest lap of this year's F1 pre-season testing, completely shattering last year's fastest time.

With the 2024 F1 pre-season testing underway, Formula One fans are looking at the first indications of how may the teams and drivers compare this season, and some of that is coming quite early.

While the third day of testing is usually the most indicative, two teams showed a lot of promise already during the first two days this year. On Day 1, Max Verstappen, in a Red Bull, completely outpaced the competition with a lap time of 1:31.344, which was more than 1.1 seconds faster than the rest of the grid.

On Day 2 of the testing, the situation got a bit more interesting. First, the plans of the teams were interrupted by a red flag, but once they returned for the afternoon session, Ferrari started showing their pace.

Last year's fastest time of the testing, which was clocked by Sergio Perez during the last day of the pre-season testing, was 1:30.305, in a car that won all but one race during the 2023 season.

The only many to beat Red Bull in 2023 was Sainz, and the Spanish driver is also the first driver to beat their last year's time this year, clocking 1:29.921 in one of his attempts during the second day of testing.

The lap time came on the soft C4 compound of tires, which will not be used during the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix, which will be held at the same circuit as the testing - the Bahrain International Circuit.

Sainz's time is only around two tenths of a second away from Verstappen's last year's pole position time during the first race of the season, when the Dutch driver completed a lap in 1:29.708. With the way the lap times have been trending this season during the testing, it's expected that even that time will be broken.