Bahrain Grand Prix – Sebastian Vettel marginally won the free practice bragging rights by beating team-mate Charles Leclerc in free practice two.
With drivers taking advantage of more representative conditions for qualifying, Ferrari demonstrated a strong turn of pace by beating Mercedes by over half-a-second in today’s qualifying simulations.
Ferrari were the only front-running team to try two qualifying stints, possibly due to the threat of rain for free practice three on Saturday morning. However, it turned out that both of their timed laps were comfortably ahead of Mercedes.
Vettel’s time of 1:28.846 was just 0.035 faster than team-mate Leclerc, despite making a small error in the final corner.
There were concerns for Ferrari, however, after Vettel spun on the exit of turn two during his race simulation, flat-spotting his set of soft tyres.
Hamilton was the faster of the two Mercedes drivers, albeit six tenths off Vettel’s pace. The reigning champion finished one tenth ahead of Bottas, who backed off on his first flying lap after an error in turn two.
Surprisingly, Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg finished just ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for fifth, around nine tenths of a second off the pace.
The second Red Bull belonging to Pierre Gasly finished down in twelfth after failing to set a representative lap time.
Kevin Magnussen ended the day seventh for Haas, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris – who had to pit with technical difficulties late in the session – team-mate Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat.
There were dramas for the Alfa Romeo team, who missed much of the later stages of the session with water leaks.
To view the full results of the session, click here.
