The Mercedes driver headed his McLaren rival by a meagre 0.058s at the end of Thursday’s running.

The second day of testing included a race run and pit stop simulations for Piastri.

“Another productive day,” said Piastri, who completed 86 laps.

“With each day at these tests, we’re learning more about the car.

“We focused on some race preparation running this afternoon, seeing where we can find performance, which went well and we made some good improvements as a result.

“There’s still lots of performance to find, which is the case for every team on the grid, but overall, a smooth day.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on track in the morning to finish out testing.”

Max Verstappen has the Red Bull RB20 to himself on day two, completing 139 laps on his way to third while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc wound up fourth.

Last year’s champion Lando Norris topped the morning session before his time was topped in the cooler evening conditions.

“We made some more good steps today,” said Norris after logging 72 laps.

“We’re gaining more and more understanding of the tyres, the balance and the strengths and weaknesses of our cars.

“From a tyre perspective, the running of the same sets of tyres on both long and short runs to see how they perform was useful for our learning.

“It was also good to try the start procedure in these new regulation cars at the end of the morning session.

“One more session of running tomorrow before we go racing, but I am feeling more confident.”

How to watch F1 pre-season testing: TV times, schedule, driver line-ups

The afternoon session, which began at 3pm local time, was stopped when Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin AMR26 suffered a power unit-related issue.

“It was not the easiest day with a few disruptions,” said Alonso.

“It was important to get some mileage in, but it wasn’t enough, and we couldn’t complete our run plan due to a PU-related issue that caused an early finish to the afternoon session.

“There are many things we need to fix, but I know everyone at the track and at the AMR Technology Campus is working at 100 percent capacity to find solutions.”

Testing will continue on Friday.

Results: Formula 1 Bahrain Pre-Season Test Day 2

Pos
Num
Driver
Team
Laps
Lap
Diff
Gap

1
12
Kimi Antonelli
Mercedes
79
1:32.803

2
81
Oscar Piastri
McLaren
86
1:32.861
0.058
0.058

3
3
Max Verstappen
Red Bull Racing
139
1:33.162
0.359
0.301

4
44
Lewis Hamilton
Ferrari
78
1:33.408
0.605
0.246

5
1
Lando Norris
McLaren
72
1:33.453
0.650
0.045

6
43
Franco Colapinto
Alpine
120
1:33.818
1.015
0.365

7
27
Nico Hulkenberg
Audi
73
1:33.987
1.184
0.169

8
63
George Russell
Mercedes
77
1:34.111
1.308
0.124

9
31
Esteban Ocon
Haas F1 Team
58
1:34.201
1.398
0.090

10
30
Liam Lawson
Racing Bulls
106
1:34.532
1.729
0.331

11
23
Alexander Rossi
Williams
117
1:34.555
1.752
0.023

12
5
Gabriel Bortoletto
Audi
29
1:35.263
2.460
0.708

13
87
Oliver Bearman
Haas F1 Team
69
1:35.279
2.476
0.016

14
11
Sergio Perez
Cadillac
50
1:35.369
2.566
0.090

15
14
Fernando Alonso
Aston Martin
68
1:37.472
4.669
2.103

16
77
Valtteri Bottas
Cadillac
58
1:40.193
7.39
2.721

17
6
Isak Hadjar
Red Bull Racing

No time

18
10
Pierre Gasly
Alpine

No time

19
16
Charles Leclerc
Ferrari

No time

20
18
Lance Stroll
Aston Martin

No time

21
41
Arvid Lindblad
Racing Bulls

No time

22
55
Carlos Sainz
Williams

No time