F1 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix: Max Verstappen tops Practice 2
18th March 2022The reigning world champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen topped the timing sheets in second practice but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was close behind.
How the second practice session went…
Due to the importance of second practice, as it closely resembles the same conditions in qualifying and the race, the majority of the grid were straight out to set their initial lap times. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz topped the time sheets with a quick lap but it was beaten by his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who secured a 1:33.121 lap – 0.716 seconds faster than Sainz.
However, it wasn’t long before a Red Bull joined the fold. While Perez remained in the garage, Max Verstappen was out on the track and placed his car between the two Ferrari’s. However, the Dutch world champion was still 0.500 seconds slower than Leclerc.
While Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas had a poor start to the weekend, after he had a mechanical issue with his power unit in P1, the Finn was finally able to put in the fourth-quickest lap, 0.8 seconds behind Leclerc.
Despite not having a permanent race seat since 2019, when he raced for Renault – now Alpine, Nico Hulkenberg was able to put his Aston Martin fifth on the time sheets, 0.091 seconds slower than Bottas. The German driver was called back onto the grid to replace Sebastian Vettel, who had returned a positive Covid-19 test yesterday.
Haas’ theory to completely focus on their 2022 challenger, during the 2021 season, seems to be working out. With 31 minutes left on the clock, Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher were sat fifth and sixth, respectively. However, their fastest lap times were set on the red-ringed soft compound tyres.
With less than 10 minutes left on the clock, Verstappen was at the top of the leaderboard – after securing the fastest lap earlier on in the session. While both Ferrari’s occupied second and third with Leclerc and Sainz, respectively.
The race stewards have been given their first bit of work to do of the season, investigating an incident between Leclerc and Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda. While Leclerc was on a quick run, in the middle of the session, Tsunoda impeded the #16 Ferrari on the exit of turn eight.
That’s it for the article: ‘F1 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix: Max Verstappen tops Practice 2’ What did you think of the second practice session? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.