Sakhir, 18 March 2022: F1 World Champion took top spot in the second practice session for this weekend’s season-opening FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand with the Red Bull Racing driver finishing ahead of the Ferrari cars of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth and ninth place respectively.

Leclerc set the pace in the first half of the one-hour session, with the Monegasque driver posting a time of 1:33.121 that kept in at the top of the order for the bulk of the first half hour.

Both Red Bulls and Mercedes’ Hamilton were among the last to take to the track and as the opening phase on medium tyres evolved Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Pérez were almost half a second off Leclerc’s pace on the yellow-banded tyres. Hamilton, meanwhile, was struggling with the handling of his W13 as he once again experienced significant ‘porpoising’ on the main straight.

When the switch to soft tyres for qualifying simulations came Aston Martin pair Lance Stroll were the first out on track, though neither was able to beat Leclerc’s time on mediums. It was left to Alpine's Fernando Alonso to eventually push past Leclerc’s benchmark with the Spaniard setting a time of 1:32.877.

Leclerc was soon back in control, though, and his lap of 1:32.263 returned him to top spot.

Verstappen then emerged on softs and though he lost time in the middle sector his lap of 1:31.936 was still good enough for him to take P1 and hold it until the end of the session.

With Sainz third, George Russell finished fourth 0.593s slower than Verstappen.

Hamilton had to abandon his first qualifying run after he locked up again at Turn 1 and suffered with a malfunctioning DRS. His eventual soft tyre time was a 1:33.144 that left him ninth, 1.208s behind Verstappen.

Alonso’s quali sim saw him finish fifth ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas, while Sergio Pérez was seventh ahead Mick Schumacher in the lead Haas. Team-ate Magnussen finished 10th behind Hamilton.

2022 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 21 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 20 1'31.9362 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 20 1'32.023 0.0873 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 22 1'32.520 0.5844 George Russell Mercedes 25 1'32.529 0.5935 Fernando Alonso Alpine 24 1'32.877 0.9416 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 30 1'32.951 1.0157 Sergio Perez Red Bull 20 1'32.958 1.0228 Mick Schumacher Haas 24 1'33.085 1.1499 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 23 1'33.144 1.20810 Kevin Magnussen Haas 23 1'33.183 1.24711 Lando Norris McLaren 27 1'33.280 1.34412 Esteban Ocon Alpine 25 1'33.360 1.42413 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 24 1'33.621 1.68514 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 26 1'33.789 1.85315 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo 27 1'33.953 2.01716 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 25 1'33.958 2.02217 Nico Hulkenberg Aston Martin 28 1'34.061 2.12518 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 12 1'34.166 2.23019 Nicholas Latifi Williams 28 1'34.486 2.55020 Alex Albon Williams 22 1'34.735 2.799