Sakhir (Bahrain), Mar 11 (IANS): Ferrari's Carlos Sainz set the fastest lap on Day 2 of pre-season testing in Bahrain on a day interrupted by a number of red flags.

At lunchtime, Sainz took over from teammate Charles Leclerc and set the benchmark of 1m 33.532s on soft tyres, midway through the afternoon. He finished half a second ahead of Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver finishing P2 on Friday.

With 40 minutes left, the reigning champion battled wheel-to-wheel with Sainz, the pair putting on a late-braking display in the day. Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll finished third to drop Lewis Hamilton to fourth, the Mercedes driver having taken over from George Russell, who finished 13th with 67 laps in the morning.

Esteban Ocon, fifth, crawled to a halt with just over 90 minutes of the session remaining -– the morning leader bringing out the fourth red flag of the day with more than 100 laps under his belt. In P6 was Ferrari's Leclerc, his time good for the runner-up spot in the morning before conditions began to cool and times tumbled.

McLaren's Lando Norris was briefly interrupted by a stoppage at the pit exit to bring out the fifth red flag with just over an hour remaining. In P7, he again took the wheel for the whole day in the absence of an unwell Daniel Ricciardo.

Sebastian Vettel finished eighth after taking morning duties for Aston Martin, a reliability issue seeing him stop off-track. When he did emerge to complete the morning session, the FIA's red-flag test caused a swift retreat to the pit lane for the four-time champion.

Kevin Magnussen made his return to the cockpit, and continued running into the evening as Haas made up for lost time having encountered freight delays that stopped them from running on Thursday morning. Teammate Mick Schumacher was 12th, an exhaust problem seeing the young German step out of the car prematurely before lunch.