Alpine's Esteban Ocon sets the top time on red flag-affected morning of Day 2 in Bahrain testing

Esteban Ocon topped the timesheets on the second morning of 2022 pre-season testing in Bahrain – before Nicholas Latifi, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas all stopped in separate incidents.

Ocon set a soft-tyred benchmark of 1m 34.276s early on Day 2 and notched up more than 50 laps, the Frenchman set to drive for the whole of Friday. Charles Leclerc was a tenth away in P2 – having led the morning of Day 1 – while Max Verstappen finished third for Red Bull.

Latifi had just 12 laps under his belt, finishing 10th and last in the morning, as he was forced to stop with smoke – then fire – billowing from his rear brakes. The Canadian's issue was caused by a "minor" issue according to Williams, who now have the resulting damage to contend with.

WATCH: Nicholas Latifi's Williams stops in flames on the morning of Day 2

In P4 was Vettel for Aston Martin, the four-time champion clocking up 43 laps before being forced to stop at Turn 5. He did re-emerge with 15 minutes left – just before the second red flag was flown as part of an FIA test, effectively ending the morning session.

Lando Norris improved to P5 with 45 minutes left, the Briton having revealed on Thursday evening that a brake issue was the cause of McLaren's relatively anonymous showing so far. He will continue after lunch as Daniel Ricciardo sits out due to illness.

Norris's improvement put AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda down to P6, the Japanese driver also set to continue after lunch – while seventh-place Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas will hand the reins to rookie team mate Zhou Guanyu in the afternoon.

Bottas stopped off-track just after the second red flag, bringing out the third and final red flag of the morning as the clock ticked down to zero.

READ MORE: Bottas 'much happier' after Alfa Romeo enjoy productive opening day of Bahrain test

Haas's Mick Schumacher took the wheel to take P8 in the morning but his session ended early due to an exhaust problem. Schumacher's new team mate Kevin Magnussen will drive in the afternoon, while the team will have an extra hour to account for their truncated Thursday.

Ninth-place George Russell led the morning mileage charts with more than 60 tours of Sakhir in his Mercedes W13 before Lewis Hamilton takes over for the afternoon session, beginning at 1500 local time.

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