20/02/2014
NEWS STORY
While there is no official lunch break in Bahrain, as the majority of teams headed off for a quick midday break, Williams Valtteri Bottas sneaked in a 1:37.635 to depose Fernando Alonso at the top of the timesheets.
A fairly busy morning has been punctuated by no less than three red flags, two of them down to Nico Rosberg.
Yesterday's pace-setter Nico Hulkenberg continues to look strong as does Fernando Alonso who has concentrated on shorter runs as his team continue to 'discover' the F14 T.
Red Bull continues to be the focus of media attention, however, with 34 laps to his tally - just one lap short of the entire number of laps the Austrian team had completed over the five previous days of testing - Sebastian Vettel is finally able to get down to some serious lappery even if he currently remains almost 3s off the pace. Furthermore, it should be noted that the German has concentrated on short runs indicating the team still has concerns.
Following a frustrating day on Wednesday, Williams and Toro Rosso both appear to have resolved their issues overnight both leading the way in terms of laps completed. That said, Jean-Eric Vergne was the cause of a red flag when he stopped out on track late in the morning.
On the other hand "gremlins" are causing Caterham problems but the Anglo-Malaysian outfit insists that a "fix is in place".
After a strong day yesterday, McLaren has had problems this morning, Kevin Magnussen only completing 8 laps, while Lotus clearly still has issues with Romain Grosjean limited to just 15 laps.
Midday Times - All Times Unofficial
| Name | Team | Laps | Time | Gap |
| Bottas | Williams | 50 | 1:37.635 | 123.999 mph |
| Alonso | Ferrari | 40 | 1:37.700 | 0.065 |
| Hulkenberg | Force India | 24 | 1:38.394 | 0.759 |
| Magnussen | McLaren | 8 | 1:39.958 | 2.323 |
| Vettel | Red Bull | 34 | 1:40.540 | 2.905 |
| Vergne | Toro Rosso | 53 | 1:40.609 | 2.974 |
| Rosberg | Mercedes | 34 | 1:40.932 | 3.297 |
| Gutierrez | Sauber | 43 | 1:41.135 | 3.500 |
| Grosjean | Lotus | 15 | 1:41.670 | 4.035 |
| Chilton | Marussia | 14 | 1:42.511 | 4.876 |
| Kobayashi | Caterham | 18 | 1:54.059 | 16.424 |
Check out our Thursday gallery, here.
Chris Balfe