Jules Bianchi continued his impressive form in Formula 1's young driver test at Magny-Cours by going fastest on the second day.
The Frenchman had tested for Ferrari on the opening day at the French circuit, but switched to Force India as the team evaluates his potential for a race seat in 2013. He worked his way down to a 1m16.467s, more than 1.5 seconds faster than his benchmark on the opening day. Bianchi's time was also less than two hundredths shy of Kimi Raikkonen's pole time set when F1 last raced at the French track in 2008.
In his second day at the wheel of the Mercedes W03, which ran with a new Coanda-effect exhaust layout, Sam Bird finished just over one second down the road. Bird also had the opportunity to talk seven-time World Champion Michael Schumacher through Mercedes' upgrades, with the German an interested observer during the morning running.
With Bianchi switching to Force India, Ferrari gave Davide Rigon a run-out on the second day. The Italian was tasked with aerodynamic work and running with several different iterations of front wings, but worked his way down to a 1m17.925s.
The young driver test concludes tomorrow.