F1 | FP2 | Bahrain GP | Piastri leads comfortable McLaren 1-2 - Motorsport

Spread the love

FP2 is in the books at the F1 Bahrain GP as all 20 full-time drivers competed in this session as a number of teams decided to give rookies a shot in FP1 as part of the mandatory running in 2025, full report and results below.

After locking up on his out lap, Charles Leclerc logged a 1:33.347 to kick things off as night time was reached in Bahrain. Lewis Hamilton led after five minutes as a 1:32.157 put him half a second clear of Pierre Gasly. Albon, Tsunoda and Ocon completed the top 5.

On a very fast lap, Max Verstappen went deep at turn 10 and abandoned his opening attempt.

Using softs, Antonelli and Russell slotted into 2nd and 3rd behind Lewis Hamilton. The Italian was 0.148s slower than the man he replaced at Mercedes.

Plenty of issues

At turn 1, both Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri went deep, with the Aussie having a big lock up.

Fernando Alonso had to pit with a steering wheel issue as it came off heading into the last corner. A steering rack change was required.

Into turn 10, Lando Norris had a big lock up of his own as the MCL39 was proving to be a handful to stop on the hard tyre. Moments later the Brit went off again, this time at turn 1 as his front left locked up.

At the 15-minute mark, Hamilton led Antonelli, Verstappen, Russell, Piastri, Gasly, Leclerc, Hadjar, Norris and Albon.

On a second push lap, George Russell pumped in a 1:31.945 to go fastest from his former teammate. Lewis Hamilton was in the process of responding to that but went deep at turn 8.

After cooling his soft tyres down, the seven-time World Champion went again and put his car top of the timesheets with a 1:31.915, 0.030s faster.

On his second set of new soft tyres, Max Verstappen did a 1:31.330 to put him nearly 0.4s clear of Alex Albon who had beaten the Ferraris.

The McLarens assert their authority in FP2 at the F1 Bahrain GP

However, the McLarens went into a different timezone. A 1:30.505 from Oscar Piastri saw the Australian end up fastest, 0.154s quicker than Lando Norris. He went purple in sectors 2 and 3 as the 24-year-old nailed the last corner.

Lewis Hamilton was on a very competitive lap after two sectors as he was 0.138s away from the benchmark time. However, a slide in turn 13 and going wide in the last corner cost him a bundle of time.

George Russell ended up in P3, 0.527s slower than the McLarens, with Charles Leclerc 0.013s further back.

Antonelli, Hadjar, Verstappen, Hamilton, Bearman and Sainz completed the top 10 after the qualifying simulations, with the usual variant in power modes.

Albon, Lawson, Bortoleto, Doohan, Alonso, Ocon, Gasly, Tsunoda, Stroll and Hülkenberg filled the second half of the timesheets. The German in his Sauber had an extremely scruffy lap as he struggled to match his young Brazilian teammate.

Once again on the race runs there was plenty of lock ups as drivers continued to struggle with turns 1 and 10 in particular. Over the race simulations, McLaren looked incredibly strong once again as their tyre deg and pace looked better compared to the rest of the field.