Bahrain – Free Practice 2: Vettel and Ferrari dominate, Hülkenberg surprises
Sebastian Vettel places his Ferrari ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc for this second free practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix. They lead the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, as well as a surprising Nico Hülkenberg in his Renault.
After a disappointing first race in Australia, Ferrari responded this morning during the first free practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, by recording the two fastest times of the session, with Charles Leclerc leading Sebastian Vettel.
Under consistently perfect weather conditions but with a setting sun, the temperatures are logically lower compared to this morning, with only 25 degrees in the air and slightly over 30 on the track.
Kimi Räikkönen is one of the first to take to the track at the wheel of his Alfa Romeo. The Finn will also be the first to cause yellow flags after a harmless spin in the first corner of the circuit. A rather embarrassing moment for the grid veteran who nonetheless quickly gets going again.
Traffic jams in FP1 🚗🚗
An early spin in FP2 🔄It’s been an eventful Friday so far for Kimi #BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/zHELXtM0Q8
— Formula 1 (@F1) 29 mars 2019
The drivers don’t need to be asked twice to hit the track and start pushing the stopwatch. After a first run, Valtteri Bottas already sets the best time with a 1:30.124, just 7 hundredths ahead of Charles Leclerc and his Ferrari, both on Medium tires.
Once the Soft tires were fitted on their cars, the Ferrari drivers secured the two best times of the session after 30 minutes. Sebastian Vettel, with a time of 1:28.942, was a tenth and a half ahead of Charles Leclerc. The hierarchy was maintained as the two Mercedes of Bottas and Lewis Hamilton followed and were ahead of the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly.
The position of the “best of the rest” is as usual contested between Renault, Haas, and McLaren, with an advantage for the latter thanks to Carlos Sainz’s 7th fastest time. But halfway through the session, it’s Nico Hülkenberg who surprises everyone by placing his Renault in 5th position, a little over 7 tenths off the best time, just behind the Ferraris and Mercedes.
The beginnings of Daniel Ricciardo with Renault are, however, more difficult since the Australian, who gets a new chassis in Bahrain, is 15th and 2 seconds behind Vettel…
Bad news also in the Alfa Romeo garage as both Kimi Räikkönen and Antonio Giovinazzi’s cars are immobilized and dismantled. It’s the end of the day for both drivers, whose mechanics are busy around their cars trying to identify the problem affecting them.
At the end of the session, although dominant, Sebastian Vettel made a mistake in turn 2, causing his tires to smoke. He resumed without damage.
He hasn’t put a foot wrong all day, then… 😮
That’s Sebastian Vettel behind all that tyre smoke#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/SJFIwgJWX7
— Formula 1 (@F1) 29 mars 2019
The last minutes of this session hold a little surprise for us with the return to the track of Giovinazzi, whose mechanics performed a small miracle by reassembling his Alfa Romeo to allow him to complete a few additional laps.
The FP2 standings:
It’s been a good day for the team in red 👊#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/XqCnQhe7C9
— Formula 1 (@F1) 29 mars 2019
