What happened on the second day of F1 2023 pre-season testing

A message appeared on Russell's steering wheel before stopping out on track. 

Nothing to do with the electrics or power unit according to Anthony Davidson.

The AlphaTauri driver remains outside the top 10 but stays 12th.

entering the hazy golden hour @nyckdevriespic.twitter.com/Eh0LXFFabu

— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) February 24, 2023

Only Sargeant, Alonso and Zhou are on track currently.

Top 10: Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Sargeant, Leclerc, Alonso, Zhou, Piastri, Gasly and Magnussen.

This time he's up to eighth for McLaren now, 1.5s off Verstappen's best time from earlier.

Checo and George having a catch-up! 

What do you think they are talking about? #F1#F1Testingpic.twitter.com/hRvHMO8aN4

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 24, 2023

"[It's been] smooth, very smooth. To be honest, I'm quite happy with how we’ve able to run, the quantity of tests that we’ve managed to do over these first few days, exploring the limits of the setup, trying to put the car in different places and learning a lot from it, which is a target that I had from last year that I know we couldn’t do, and this year so far I’m managing to do it. 

"It feels like an evolution of last year. It feels very similar to drive and there hasn’t been major changes going on in the car or the concept, so trying to improve the good pace that we had last year and obviously now putting our focus on our weaknesses of last year.

"Whenever I jump in the car I push, but realistically the last tenth, or the last bit of pushing, you don’t bring it until Qualy with adrenaline and everything, but tomorrow, hopefully little by little I will start building the pace."

Gasly improves to eighth-place in the Alpine. He's 1.786s off Verstappen at the moment.

Hulkenberg, Sargeant, Alonso and Zhou are also out there.

He moves ahead of Hamilton into 13th overall, 2.228s down on Verstappen's top time.

Our driver line-up for day three of #F1Testing will be as follows.

AM - @FelipeDrugovich
PM - @alo_oficialpic.twitter.com/gtJF6BWhyb

— Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) February 24, 2023

The full leaderboard at 2pm... 

Hulkenberg slots into second for Haas on the C4s, 0.8s down on Verstappen's top time.

Piastri does indeed improve, moving up two places into 14th overall.

It's been a low-key test so far for McLaren, with CEO Zak Brown downplaying their chances at the start of the season in the lunch break.

The McLaren driver is on course to improve his best lap time.

Let's see what he does.

George Russell says Mercedes are unlikely to be fighting for the win at next weekend’s F1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. 

Top 10: Verstappen, Sainz, Sargeant, Leclerc, Alonso, Zhou, Magnussen, Ocon, Gasly and Russell.

Leclerc is the next driver to find improvements this afternoon.

Running on the C3 tyre, Leclerc slots into fourth, 1.075s down on Verstappen.

Gasly goes eighth in the Alpine with a 1m33.508s, while Hulkenberg puts his Haas into 12th.