Mercedes surprise as Hamilton tops FP2 of 2024 Bahrain GP
29th February 2024Mercedes have shown surprisingly good pace in the second practice of the Bahrain Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton topped the timing boards ahead of teammate, George Russell.
The sun had fallen and gave way to darkness as the second practice commenced ahead of the second practice session during the Bahrain GP race weekend.
These would provide more representable conditions for the teams and drivers as they continued to fine-tune their cars ahead of tomorrow’s qualifying and Saturday’s race.
By the end of the second practice session, Hamilton who is set to join Ferrari for 2025 topped the timing boards as the first day came to a close. On soft tyre, qualifying runs, Hamilton set the benchmark pace with a 1:30.374.
As qualifying runs switched over to the longer race runs, Hamilton’s time remained unbeaten with Russell and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounding out the top three, two-tenths behind.
Ferrari’s outgoing Spaniard, Carlos Sainz was best of the rest in fourth ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, in fifth.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen continued to fight woes with his RB20 as the session continued and could only manage sixth at best, nearly half a second behind.
Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Sergio Perez (Red Bull) completed the top 10.
Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant completed the second practice down in 11th and 13th, for Williams, as RB’s Daniel Ricciardo squeezed in between the two, in 12th.
Kevin Magnussen completed Haas’ line-up down in 14th ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, in 15th.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon continued to have further problems with their 2024 contender and finished FP2 in 16th and 18th.
Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, sandwiched in between the two Alpine cars in 17th, was placed under investigation at the start of the session for a pit lane infringement.
Bottas’ teammate, Guanyu Zhou and McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the session in 19th and 20th respectively.
Friday continues on Formula One’s opening weekend with Free Practice 3 in the early afternoon at 3:30pm local (12:30pm GMT), followed by Qualifying shortly after at 7pm local (4pm GMT).
That’s all for the article; Mercedes surprise as Hamilton tops FP2 of 2024 Bahrain GP!
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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.
