Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Bahrain GP: Lewis Hamilton stays ahead in second practice

Mercedes continued to set the outright pace in Formula 1 as Lewis Hamilton topped the timesheets at the end of the second practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix

Hamilton was 0.365 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Held in warm, dry conditions - five degrees cooler than this afternoon's first practice - this was the first ever Formula 1 practice session in Bahrain to be held under floodlights.

Third quickest was Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari, significantly more than a second slower than Hamilton, pointing to the continued superiority of the Mercedes team.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was fourth fastest ahead of the Williams of Felipe Massa, who had a nervy moment as he was seemingly baulked by Esteban Gutierrez on the back straight a few moments before the session ended.

In sixth place was Jenson Button's McLaren, one position ahead of world champion Sebastian Vettel.

This second session of the day was all about the Mercedes pair. Rosberg was the first of the two silver machines to switch onto the soft tyre and his first run on the new rubber was two seconds faster than his pace on the medium tyres.

Soon afterwards Hamilton upped the ante and his first run on the soft tyre was immediately 0.365 seconds faster than his team-mate.

It was another eventual period for Lotus as first Romain Grosjean complained of a misfire with his Renault, while his team-mate Pastor Maldonado enjoyed a spectacular moment as he got all four wheels airborne after hitting the kerbs at Turn 4.

Briton Max Chilton retired from the session with 35 minutes remaining after he suffered a high-speed spin at Turn 4. He complained on his team radio that he lost drive then the rear axle locked and pitched his Marussia into a spin.

A few minutes later Adrian Sutil climbed out of the cockpit of his Sauber at Turn 6 following a problem with his car. Another retiree was Marcus Ericsson, who stopped his Caterham at the side of the track just five minutes from the flag.

Early on there was a dramatic moment as Sergio Perez narrowly avoided a slow-moving Rosberg as they headed towards the final corner.

The German initially moved to his right to get out of the Force India driver's way, and Perez had to take action to avoid hitting the Mercedes. The stewards said they would look at the incident after the session.


Pos Driver                Team                      Time      Gap     Laps
 1. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes                  1m34.325s          28
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                  1m34.690s  +0.365  31
 3. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                   1m35.360s  +1.035  28
 4. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault          1m35.433s  +1.108  28
 5. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes         1m35.442s  +1.117  13
 6. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes          1m35.528s  +1.203  21
 7. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault          1m35.606s  +1.281  29
 8. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault        1m35.640s  +1.315  31
 9. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes          1m35.662s  +1.337  22
10. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes      1m35.802s  +1.477  40
11. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes         1m35.920s  +1.595   9 
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault        1m35.972s  +1.647  32
13. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes      1m35.998s  +1.673  18
14. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari                   1m36.366s  +2.041  32
15. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari            1m36.962s  +2.637  13
16. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari            1m36.975s  +2.650  35
17. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault             1m37.259s  +2.934  24
18. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault             1m37.599s  +3.274  23
19. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari          1m37.800s  +3.475  15
20. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari          1m38.247s  +3.922  10
21. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault          1m38.257s  +3.932  33
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault          1m39.136s  +4.811  30

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Pirelli doubtful of 2015 F1 tyre warmer ban
Next article Bahrain GP: Williams drivers saw little value in F1 free practice

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe