BAHRAIN GP – Oscar Piastri leads a McLaren one-two going a tenth and a half ahead of teammate Lando Norris in second practice
Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the Australian set a 30.505 on the soft tyre to go a tenth and a half ahead of his teammate Lando Norris. The second more representative session saw McLaren underline their status as favourites, as Norris was nearly four-tenths faster than George Russell.
Piastri set his fastest time towards the end of the race simulations about halfway through the session as the temperatures dropped and the track gripped up as night fell in the Bahraini desert, this allowed both McLaren’s to unleash some pace. The team were expected to top the times given their advantage in recent races.
In the evening session McLaren looked to have the advantage on race pace ahead of the rest of the top four, like in testing the day was relatively incident-free on a track with which the teams were familiar after three days of pre-season testing a month and a half ago.
The impression from testing, that McLaren had an advantage around the Sakhir International Circuit, continued on the first day of the weekend. McLaren was expected to be favourites bouncing back from the strategic blunder that handed Max Verstappen victory five days ago in Suzuka.
Russell had at one stage led the session from former teammate Lewis Hamilton and current teammate Kimi Antonelli, that was before McLaren did their fastest lap but despite his improvement on his final attempt was over half a second off.
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari fourth going just over a hundredth behind Russell as he split the two Mercedes with Antonelli just under two-tenths behind the Monacan. However Ferrari was half a second off the outright pace set by Piastri, they still appear despite a few upgrades this weekend.
Ferrari had at one stage looked quick in the cooler conditions, but as the conditions cooled and the track gripped up McLaren showed their true pace which had been expected here since the end of testing. But Leclerc was half a second off Piastri after a scrappy soft lap, Ferrari certainly does have the pace for a good weekend like Mercedes however it doesn’t look to be enough to fight McLaren.
Isack Hadjar continued his strong start to this triple header, off the back of points five days ago in Suzuka he put his Racing Bull sixth going nearly a tenth faster than multiple world champions Verstappen and Hamilton. But the Frenchman did his time on mediums compared to those around him who were on softs.
The Dutchman still appeared to have a few niggles with the brakes, as he went nearly a quarter of a second ahead of Hamilton. Hamilton was half a second off Leclerc, but that could be explained by the team trying out different floor designs.
Verstappen complained about his Red Bull “jumping a lot” with a “very bad ride,” highlighted by a lock-up and trip to the run-off area at the tight Turn Ten left-hander. Red Bull still looking to be on the back foot compared to last year, but as last weekend proved the four-time champion can never be counted out.
Ollie Bearman was ninth ahead of the Williams Carlos Sainz going nearly three-quarters of a tenth ahead of Alex Albon. Liam Lawson put his Racing Bull twelfth going a hundredth behind the Williams and ahead of Fernando Alonso.
Gabriel Bortoletto put his Sauber thirteenth on used soft tyres, going a hundredth and a half ahead of Jack Doohan. Fernando Alonso was fifteenth but there was this strange moment early in the session where his steering wheel detached from the car while out on track, he managed to recover to finish a second and three-tenths off the pace.
Esteban Ocon was three-quarters of a tenth ahead of his former teammate Pierre Gasly with Yuki Tsunoda the same margin behind the Alpine, but Red Bull tend to run the engines in lower modes on Friday. Lance Stroll put his Aston Martin nineteenth going just over a tenth faster than Nico Hulkenberg.