F1 2023 Bahrain GP: Alonso fastest ahead of Verstappen in FP2
3rd March 2023Aston Martin ended the first official day of running in good form as Fernando Alonso topped the timing sheets with the quickest time in FP2: 1:30.907.
- Aston Martin caught everyone’s attention after Alonso secured the second-fastest time on the board in free practice one before going fastest in free practice two.
- Alpha Tauri’s drivers Yuki Tsunoda (+1.618) and Nyck De Vries (+1.698) led the bottom three ahead of Williams’ Logan Sargeant (+1.842) who stood as the slowest driver of the session.
Prior to the start of Fp2, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll waited patiently at the pit exit as the Canadian eagerly waited for the pit exit light to go green. This was understandable as the Stroll needed to get some laps under his belt after he missed out on pre-season testing due to a minor training accident.
The Aston Martin driver was soon joined by the rest of the field. After four minutes, Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg was the only driver yet to peel out of the pit lane.
Day had turned to night, prior to FP2, went meant the conditions were representable to that of Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race conditions. As such, some drivers were booted with the soft compound tyres as their respective teams opted for early performance and qualifying runs while others were fitted with the yellow medium compounds.
There were a few close calls in the early moments of FP2. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez – the fastest man in FP1 – raced down to turn eight, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc cut him off and caused the Mexican driver to lock up into the corner.
Whereas, down the main straight, McLaren-rookie Oscar Piastri raced side-by-side with Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda but has to take evasive action in a bid to avoid Stroll into the braking zone of turn one.
After the first 15 minutes, Ferrari stood in a one-two position with the fastest laps on the timing sheets. Leclerc stood at the top of the times with a 1:31.843, 0.113s faster than his teammate, Carlos Sainz. The Monegasque’s time remained unbeaten until the clock had 35 minutes left as Stroll went to the top of the leaderboard (1:31.450), three-tenths faster.
However, as the teams started to push their cars, the lap times started to tumble.
With 25 minutes left on the clock, Alonso secured the overall fastest lap of the session as he topped the timing board with a 1:30.907 which stood one-tenth faster than the defending world champion, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
That’s all for the article; F1 2023 Bahrain GP: Alonso fastest ahead of Verstappen in FP2!
What do you think of Aston Martin’s pace? Let us know in the comments!
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- F1 2023 Bahrain GP Preview
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