Oscar Piastri led teammate Rand Norris to the top two spots in Bahrain Grampuri’s second practice with an ominous display of McLaren’s performance.
Both major drivers required one trial with one set of fresh soft tires to move comfortably to the top of the table. Norris was first crossing the line to show off his team’s hands, but Piastri quickly beat him by setting purple splits in sectors 2 and 3. Australia has set its benchmark at the 1m30.505S, 0.154 seconds faster than its sister car.
George Russell was the best of others, but his Mercedes was a long way from the pace, rapping 0.527 over Piastri around the well-understood Bahrain International Circuit, which was used for preseason testing in late February.
Charles Leclerc puts Ferrari just a bit, his best effort was just 0.013 seconds at Russell and 0.54 seconds from the main McLaren, with Monegasque passing his new floor at that pace.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed the Mercedes top 10, with the rookie rapping 0.722 from the pace.
This was a much more representative session where FP1 was burning and running in the desert sunshine in the late afternoon. With the Sun set in time for FP2, the truck temperature was completely 25°f cooler, trapped at 93°, with a substantial positive effect on handling and tire grip.
Qualifying and racing takes place at similar times as FP2, the only nighttime practice session on the weekend, providing important insights into the weekend form guide.
The Isack Hadjar was an impressive sixth for the Race Bulls with medium tires, not soft. The Frenchman was 0.733 seconds off the pace, but in one place, 0.092 seconds, more surprising than the senior Red Bull Racing team’s Max Verstappen.
Verstappen’s RB21 appears sweetly unbalanced on laps faster than Japan, with the Dutch complaining of brake issues at the final corner throughout the session.
Lewis Hamilton finished 8th in the second Ferrari, with Britton leaving the pace of 1.071S before leaving the pace after lap left the path out of the final two corners. He ended the radio with his team on the issue of bodywork in the upgraded car.
Oliver Baerman was ninth in Haas ahead of Carlos Sainz, who completed Williams’ top 10.
Alex Albon followed his teammate Sainz closely in 11th place ahead of Liam Lawson, Gabriel Boltreto and Jack Douhan.
Fernando Alonso was 15th after a strange start to the one-hour session.
Onboard footage showed that after applying Turn 14 brakes at the end of a long back straight, Alonso’s steering wheel was coming out of the steering column, an astonishing steering column, but it was unclear whether that was part of the problem, or whether Alonso was trying to manually disconnect it and restart the steering wheel software. Either way, the Spaniards had to return to the pit lane and lose a major run for subsequent repairs.
Esteban Ocon was 16th in Haas, ahead of Pierre Guthrie and his worrying hilarious horned 1.519 seconds total, after complaining of a “crazy” frontlock.
The Japanese driver’s lap shows no obvious mistakes and sums up his best sector eras to create a yawning deficit similarly, but one run with fresh soft tires could have played a factor in his inability to access the peak grips of the red-clad rubber.
Lance Stroll was 19th place after Nico Halkenberg, who completed Sauber’s order.
