Ferrari Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc set the new fastest time of the Bahrain test in the morning session of the second day, as both Mercedes and Red Bull hit trouble.

Mercedes already had limited running with Kimi Antonelli in the afternoon session of the opening day, and ran only three untimed laps here.

While the Wednesday issue was reported as being on the car side rather than the engine, today it was forced into a full engine change. Despite Antonelli's limited laps, George Russell is expected in the car in the afternoon, though it would be logical for Antonelli to then get all of the final day.

Red Bull didn't even match Mercedes' three laps, because Isack Hadjar only took to the track in the very final minute - the RB22 was kept in the garage beforehand by a hydraulic leak after its excellent running on Wednesday.

With their fellow expected frontrunners absent, Leclerc in the Ferrari and reigning champion Lando Norris in the McLaren were well clear at the top of the timesheets.

Leclerc set several soft-tyre (C3) laps good enough for the top spot, ending up on a 1m34.273s logged in the third hour of running.

Norris and McLaren focussed on longer stints on the harder tyres - the C2 and C1 - though did also record a quick lap, with Norris' best C2 time half a second off Leclerc's C3 benchmark.

Pierre Gasly in the Alpine, Haas's Ollie Bearman and Alex Albon in the Williams completed the top five, with Audi's Nico Hulkenberg just 0.037s back from Albon (and three seconds back from Leclerc).

Racing Bulls and Aston Martin both made some amends for lost mileage on Wednesday, as both Liam Lawson and Fernando Alonso reached the 50-lap mark.

Cadillac caused an early red flag, but Sergio Perez was back on track soon to record a total of 42 laps.

Fastest laptimes - Bahrain day two, AM

1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m34.273s - 62 laps
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.511s - 64 laps
3 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +2.450s - 61 laps
4 Oliver Bearman (Haas F1 Team) +2.752s - 55 laps
5 Alexander Albon (Williams) +2.956s - 62 laps
6 Nico Hulkenberg (Audi) +2.993s - 47 laps
7 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +3.744s - 50 laps
8 Sergio Perez (Cadillac) +4.380s - 42 laps
9 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +4.687s - 55 laps
N/A Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) no time - 3 laps
N/A Isack Hadjar (Red Bull) no time - 1 lap