With qualifying and the race taking place in the evening, FP2 is by far the most representative session of the weekend in Bahrain as more clues to the pecking order started to be pieces together.
Valtteri Bottas was placed under investigation immediately for a pit lane exit infringment. The Finn appeared to cross the white line before the red light switch to green to commence second practice.
The Sauber of Zhou Guanyu set the first time.of the session as he logged a 1:34.178 using the medium tyre.
However, Lewis Hamilton really put down a marker using the soft tyre as a 1:30.751 put him 0.827s clear of Charles Leclerc on the same compound. Perez and Sainz were the only other drivers within a second of the Brit.
Magnussen, Hülkenberg, Gasly, Ocon, Albon and Sargeant completed the top 10 after 7 minutes.
A purple middle sector moments later moved Fernando Alonso into 2nd, just under 0.3s adrift of his former teammate.
On second flying laps, Leclerc, Perez and Sainz improved their times to move a little bit closer to Hamilton but stayed in P3, P5 and P6. Max Verstappen slotted into 4th, 0.520s slower than Hamilton.
Stroll, Russell, Hülkenberg and Magnussen rounded out the top 10 at the 15-minute mark. Only the top 12 ran on softs for the first fliers.
On his second attempt, Verstappen moved up a spot to P3. However, he was still 0.410s away from Hamilton’s benchmark.
With new softs, Sainz, Piastri and Hülkenberg moved up to P2, P3 and P4, but they all failed to beat Lewis Hamilton’s first soft tyre lap time.
Using his second new set of softs, Hamilton banged in a 1:30.374 to extend his advantage at the top over Sainz to 0.395s.
Ultimately George Russell would make it a 1-2 for Mercedes. After a messy first run with errors, he went within 0.206s of his seven-time World Champion teammate. Fernando Alonso also did a good job to place 3rd, 0.296s adrift.
Sainz, Piastri, Verstappen, Hülkenberg, Leclerc and Perez completed the top 10. Between overdriving and traffic, the Monegasque driver had a messy session on the short runs.
Albon, Ricciardo, Sargeant, Magnussen, Tsunoda, Gasly, Bottas, Ocon, Guanyu and Norris completed the order. The Brit in the McLaren went off at the last corner and abandoned his lap.
