Today the truth in Qualifying
Mercedes double with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell. This is the verdict of the second free practice session of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which few would have hypothesized after yesterday's three days of testing in which in any case George Russell had glimpsed good potential even on the flying lap.
The W15s were 'feared' more in terms of race pace and today starting from 5pm they could suffer the 'return' of their more reliable rivals. As our telemetric analysis has highlighted, it is probable that Hamilton and Russell have already asked 'a lot' of the Mercedes power unit in the Qualifying simulation carried out yesterday and when the engines will be squeezed to the maximum this afternoon Ferrari and Honda will have – as always – something more in terms of raw power.
Sergio Perez had underlined on the eve of the weekend that Red Bull was fast, but not as fast as you might expect. The RB20 is a new car that needs to be 'roughed up' and Max Verstappen did not appear to be so worried at the end of an anonymous Friday regarding the overall performance, but still positive judging from the race pace, the great weapon of the RB19 which currently does not seems to be so devastating in this very first version of the RB20.
For now there even seems to be a nine-way fight for the front rows, involving Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc failed to put together a clean lap in PL2 between a lock-up in Turn 4 and traffic, but it would be surprising not to see the #16 SF-24 – a pole position specialist – not be fighting for first line. The Ferrari team principal at the press conference Frederic Vasseur underlined that it takes very little to excel or hide in terms of the amount of petrol on board: “10 kg of petrol more or less is enough to go from first to sixth-seventh position”, the words of the number one on the Ferrari wall. However, the French manager is satisfied with how the season has started compared to 2023: “This year we already have a satisfactory understanding of the car which will allow us to immediately be able to work on development with a clear direction and it's a good feeling”.
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