The morning session of day two of Formula 1 pre-season testing was cut short after a drain cover on the Sakhir circuit came loose and had to be repaired.
In scenes similar to Las Vegas' inaugural race last year, both Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes and Charles Leclerc's Ferrari hit the cover at turn 11 with the floor of Leclerc's car seriously damaged. It had to be taken to the pits to be replaced.
While tiny shards of carbon fibre flicked off the Mercedes at the main straight, no other damage was reported by the team.
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Once testing resumed following a 40-minute delay, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz set the pace, clocking 0.758 seconds faster than Red Bull rival Sergio Perez.
Hamilton, who will replace Sainz in red at the end of the season, finished third fastest but was more than a second adrift of the SF-24.
Daniel Ricciardo continued to draw attention, placing in the top five for the second straight day of testing.
On the opening day of testing, reigning world champion Max Verstappen recorded the fastest time but was swapped out for his Red Bull teammate overnight.
Despite Sainz's efforts — with his hot lap of 1:29:921 quicker when compared to Verstappen's of 1:31:344 — it is still thought that Red Bull is in the driver's seat ahead of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at the same venue next week.
"My initial feeling is that Red Bull unfortunately remains quite a bit ahead," Leclerc said afterwards.
"They are in such a great momentum at the moment," added Mercedes' driver George Russell.
"They started these new regulations on the front foot and they came here and have been solid ever since. So, they are definitely the favourites, definitely a step ahead of everybody else here in Bahrain.
"They've had a massive winter no doubt, but that was to be expected."
Because of the premature end to the morning session, coupled with a brake issue before the RB19 even hit the track, Perez did not pass over driving duties to Verstappen.
Perez completed three laps during the opening session before returning to the team garage for some further work on his car.
Footage from within the pits briefly showed the front break of Perez's car alight after overheating.
One day of pre-season testing remains before the 24-race regular season gets underway.
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