For a moment Toto Wolff must have closed his eyes thinking that he was still in a season between 2014 and 2021, the ones that brought world titles to Brackley without interruption.
The Mercedes dominated the second free practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, at least as far as the flying lap was concerned. In track conditions similar to those that the drivers will find in qualifying and the race, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell made the difference with Soft compounds, which in Sakhir are the C3, achieving an unexpected 1-2.
1'30″374 is the best time achieved by Lewis Hamilton which led him to finish ahead of everyone, 206 thousandths quicker than the first of his pursuers, George Russell. The 7-time world champion had few changes made to his W15, a symptom of a structure already quite close to his preferences.
Russell, on the other hand, worked hard on the car's ground clearance, also managing to improve with the second set of C3 compounds used in the first half hour. The first pursuer of the black-silver Arrows is Fernando Alonso with the Aston Martin AMR24, 80 thousandths behind Russell.
Behind the first three is the first Ferrari, that of Carlos Sainz. The Madrilenian was better and luckier than Charles Leclerc – ninth, 7 tenths behind Hamilton – making better use of the Softs. Leclerc, however, first made a mistake with C3's first set, then was slowed down in Turn 1 by Lance Stroll's Aston Martin (eighth at the end of the round).
Opposite poles at McLaren, with Oscar Piastri fifth and Lando Norris last, also for not having made good use of the two attempts made on the Softs. Max Verstappen is sixth, and the news is that he won't see him ahead of everyone after his domination last season.
The Ferrari engine gave the first important signals thanks to the seventh time of Nico Hulkenberg's Haas. Said of Stroll and Leclerc, eighth and ninth respectively, Sergio Perez completes the Top 10 with the second Red Bull RB20, just 3 tenths behind Verstappen on the flying lap.
Good signals from Williams with Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant 11th and 13th, interspersed with the first Racing Bulls, that of Daniel RIcciardo. The VCARB 01s did less well than initially expected on the flying lap, while the pace isn't that bad.
Kevin Magnussen led the second Haas ahead of the second Racing Bulls, that of Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly's Alpine. The French team continues to struggle even with low temperatures, because the black and blue single-seaters are in 16th and 18th place.
The Sauber C44s did not shine, with Valtteri Bottas and GuanYu Zhou 17th and 19th ahead of bringing up the rear Lando Norris.
Race pace: Max super with the Softs. Then Leclerc and Hamilton
If Verstappen didn't put his name at the top of the session's time list for the flying lap, he still did so in the timesheet in the race pace simulation on Soft tyres.
Max was the fastest and most consistent, with a few tenths of an advantage over his rivals – to be precise Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton – but a constant margin. On the Soft, the number 1 RB20 still looked like the car to beat, even if the margin seen today is much smaller than what we saw in 2023.
Both Ferrari and Mercedes showed good stints on the Softs, but both Leclerc and Hamilton were forced to do a cooling lap in between their stints. It's clear that both have managed to improve tire management compared to last year, but it will take time to catch the Red Bull.
Ferrari has shown itself to be less effective with the Soft tires (the C3), but will be able to have race pace on the hard tires (C1) if it confirms the good things it showed in the long runs during the tests. It should be noted that, almost certainly, the Medium tires were excluded from the choices for the race, as happened last year.
Friday, we know, is always to be taken with a pinch of salt. But, at least for today, no one has shown that they can kill the championship straight away as happened 12 months ago. But tomorrow is another day and patience will still be needed to understand more about the real values on the track.
#Bahrain #Free #Practice #Mercedes #Sainz #4th #Max #slyly
