Mercedes duo shake things up in dominant FP2

Under the Bahraini floodlights, Lewis Hamilton dominated a representative Free Practice 2 session, with Mercedes leading over Red Bull by almost half a second as the chequered flag fell.

With conditions remnant of what is to come during tomorrow night’s qualifying session, it was no surprise to see the drivers instantly leaving their garages at the green light. 

After leading the field out of the pitlane, Valtteri Bottas was the first driver to set a flying lap, recording a subpar time of 1:32.645s.

Dampening his start to FP2, the Fin was noted by Race Control for a pitlane infringement after crossing the pit exit line prior to the green light. 

With a mix of tyre compounds across the grid, an immediate divide in times was evident. 

Those who withheld from running the soft tyre in FP1 opted to start the session on the C3, seeing Lewis Hamilton earning the top spot ahead of Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc after their opening runs. 

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, during FP2 at the Bahrain GP. Image: Andy Hone / LAT Images.

As for the medium tyre runners, it was the Williams duo who held the lead, headed by Alex Albon. 

As Verstappen cruised around the Bahrain International Circuit’s 15 corners, his sector times reflected a slower pace than the Mercedes, seeing him crossing the line in P4.

“Maybe some people around us already turned up the engine a bit in terms of top speed, but we just focus on ourselves, and I think from today, there were a few little balance issues from front to rear, but nothing big.” Max Verstappen.

His P4 put him one-tenth behind Leclerc, who had a dicey moment at the final corner after carrying too much speed and getting out of shape.

The Monegasque called from his team to check the floor of his SF-24, seeing him returning to the Ferrari garage on the following lap.

Further down the order, the medium tyre runners were beginning to surrender the slower compound, swapping it out for the C3.

After giving a lot of feedback during the opening practice session of the weekend, Verstappen’s complaints shifted onto his helmet which was letting too much air in for the Dutchman’s liking.

He swapped his helmet out not long after.

Max Verstappen’s FP1 displeasure continued into the second practice session in Bahrain. Image: Clive Rose/Getty Images // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool

Carlos Sainz was steady on a qualifying run, improving from P7 to P2 behind Hamilton.

Oscar Piastri filed in behind despite setting the fastest Sector 2, seeing the top three separated by just 0.033 seconds. 

Hamilton continued to improve on his fastest time, however, extending the gap to Sainz to almost four-tenths.

“Again I don’t understand, it’s a shock to see us where we are. We’ll take it for now but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We need to keep our heads down, keep working on the set-up. I think our long-run pace is nowhere near the Red Bulls, for example, and I think we were a lot closer so we’ve got some work to do there.” Lewis Hamilton

Meanwhile, Nico Hulkenberg in the Haas found himself in P4, demoting Fernando Alonso.

Leclerc continued to make a few errors, taking too much kerb at Turn 4 after returning to the track. 

Later he felt he was impeded by Lance Stroll who placed his Aston Martin in the middle of Turn 1, impacting on yet another attempt. 

His bad luck wasn’t over yet as another impeding incident struck the #16, seeing Leclerc agitated by his “sleeping” competitors.

Charles Leclerc’s frustrations grew after being impeded during FP2 in Bahrain. Image: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images.

At the halfway mark, Verstappen had only just managed to work his way into P4, with Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull back in P10.

The interval between the 2021 title rivals, acknowledging different run plans, had grown to almost half a second as the clock ticked down, with Russell soon accompanying his teammate in the top two.

The final spot in the top three was occupied by Alonso, however, sitting 0.286s off Hamilton’s pace.

Daniel Ricciardo, after topping the earlier session, found himself outside of the top ten fastest times in P12.

With 15 minutes remaining, drivers switched their focus to race runs and high-fuel runs, seeing the order stay relatively unchanged.

On a refreshingly clean race run, Leclerc recorded a time of 1:37.297s, his SF-24 sparking as he carved his way around the 5.412km circuit.

Hamilton’s run was nearly three-tenths quicker as he crossed the line with a 1:37.004s.

With one Aston Martin sitting in the top three, the other attempted to make an impact with his race run, however, Stroll only managed to set a time of 1:37.894s.

Unlike the #18, Verstappen and Perez were able to successfully make an impact with their race runs as two of the few drivers to set times within the 1m 36s.

Sergio Perez during the second practice session of the Bahrain GP weekend. Image: Mark Sutton / Sutton Images.

Lando Norris’ place at the bottom of the pack was put down to an early mistake, with his running also partially halted by a change of steering wheel.

Norris’ race runs were also slower than Piastri’s throughout the session, with the Australian recording multiple laps within the 1m 36s.

At the chequered flag, Norris hadn’t set a true representative lap, settling for P20 in the qualifying-like conditions as Piastri sat in P5.

Hamilton maintained the fastest overall time joined by Russell at the height of the order, with Alonso completing the top three.

Carlos Sainz was just behind his compatriot as the lead Ferrari in FP2, with Leclerc back in P9.

The distance between Mercedes and Red Bull makes for an exciting qualifying session tomorrow, with further upshift-related groans coming from the Verstappen cockpit at the close of FP2.

Friday’s FP3 action will kick off at 11:30 PM, AEST, with Qualifying following shortly after at 3:00 AM, AEST (Saturday morning).

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