Hamilton leads free practice time sheets in Bahrain: F1

Bahrain, 29 February 2024: The opening weekend of the longest season in Formula 1 history saw Mercedes write the first headline. The Toto Wolff-run team had both its drivers at the top of the time sheet come the end of the second free practice session, the one that is most relevant as it was held in similar conditions to those found in tomorrow’s qualifying and Saturday’s race. Quickest was Lewis Hamilton (1:30.374) while team-mate George Russell was just 206 thousandths of a second slower. Behind the Mercedes duo came five drivers from five different teams in the following order: Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), all within 286 thousandths, the German’s time 510 thousandths slower than Hamilton’s.

Quite strong winds were the order of the day, as well as much cooler temperatures than usual for the Bahrain Grand Prix and to a lesser extent to those experienced at last week’s test, with the mercury dropping below 20° for air temperature in FP2. It should be noted that this event is taking place a bit earlier in the year than usual. Hamilton’s time was just under six tenths faster than the best FP2 time from last year, when Alonso posted a 1:30.907 and 666 thousandths off the 2023 pole time set by Verstappen.

Max, 6th in Free Practice

Lewis Hamilton set the pace in the second practice session for this weekend’s season-opening FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, with the Mercedes driver finishing two tenths of a second clear of team-mate George and with defending World Champion Max Verstappen in sixth place. 
At the start of the session, drivers went out on a mix of Soft and medium tyres, with many of the expected frontrunners opting for the red-walled C3 compound. Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez was quicker to the fore with a time of 1:31.629 but that was soon beaten by Charles Leclerc who logged a lap of 131.578 in the Ferrari SF-24. However, both were easily bypassed by Hamilton who posted a lap of 1:30.751 to take top spot. Alonso then split the top two with a 1m31.035s. Hamilton though was improving all the time and the seven-time champion eventually worked his way to 1:30.374 to seal first place for good. 
Further down the order, Verstappen’s opening lap was half a second down on Hamilton’s P1 time and, although he later improved on the same set of tyres, he failed to make a serious move up the order and eventually had to settle for the sixth place earned by his best time of 1:30.851. 
Behind Hamilton, Russell slotted in behind to sit second, posting a best time of 1:30.580 on his second set of Softs to finish 0.206 behind his team-mate. Fernando Alonso ended up in third place, eight hundredths of a second behind Russell and fourth place went to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on 1:30.769, a time that put him 0.015s ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and with Verstappen 0.477s off Hamilton in P6.
These performance runs of the first half hour then gave way to longer running, which meant that Nico Hülkenberg finished in P7 for Haas, just three hundredths of a second off Verstappen, while Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was eighth, 0.007s behind the German. Leclerc and Pérez rounded out the top 10, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon, with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo in P12 ahead of the second Williams of Logan Sargeant.

2024 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes !:30.374 25 215.584
2 George Russell Mercedes !:30.580 0.206 23 215.093
3 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes !:30.660 0.286 22 214.904
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari !:30.769 0.395 25 214.645
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes !:30.784 0.410 27 214.610
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT !:30.851 0.477 25 214.452
7 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari !:30.884 0.510 23 214.374
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes !:30.891 0.517 26 214.357
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari !:31.113 0.739 26 213.835
10 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT !:31.115 0.741 26 213.830
11 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes !:31.333 0.959 26 213.320
12 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT !:31.516 1.142 26 212.893
13 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes !:31.715 1.341 27 212.431
14 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari !:31.764 1.390 27 212.318
15 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT !:31.881 1.507 29 212.048
16 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault !:31.951 1.577 25 211.886
17 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari !:32.001 1.627 24 211.771
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault !:32.027 1.653 25 211.711
19 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari !:32.048 1.674 28 211.663
20 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes !:32.608 2.234 25 210.383