Lewis Hamilton
The pacesetting of the Mercedes team continued with Lewis Hamilton topping the opening two practice sessions for the Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Hamilton outshone team-mate Nico Rosberg in both free practice runs with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso grabbing third best twice to make it a duplicate trifecta.
The gap Mercedes holds on the field appears to be significant as the Brackley team shoot for a third successive victory at the Sakhir circuit.
Hamilton was buoyed by the performance of the car on soft rubber.
“The softs in particular seem to be working well and we saw a fair difference in lap time between them and the mediums,” Hamilton said.
“The focus today was on the second session as the timing and conditions reflects that of the rest of the weekend and the difference in temperature between the sessions was quite large.
“The key was to not react too much to that change in terms of our approach to set-up and we seemed to manage that well.”
Australian Daniel Ricciardo, facing a 10-place grid drop from an ill-fated Malaysian GP, was fourth fastest in FP2, 1.1s off Hamilton’s pace and .1s behind Alonso.
Ricciardo’s Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel was seventh, behind the Williams of Felipe Massa and Jenson Button (McLaren) in sixth.
See below for Free Practice 2
| 1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1:34.325 |
|
| 2 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
1:34.690 |
+0.365 |
| 3 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
1:35.360 |
1.035 |
| 4 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull-Renault |
1:35.433 |
1.108 |
| 5 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams-Mercedes |
1:35.442 |
1.117 |
| 6 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1:35.528 |
1.203 |
| 7 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull-Renault |
1:35.606 |
1.281 |
| 8 |
Daniil Kvyat |
Toro Rosso-Renault |
1:35.640 |
1.315 |
| 9 |
Kevin Magnussen |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1:35.662 |
1.337 |
| 10 |
Sergio Perez |
Force India-Mercedes |
1:35.802 |
1.477 |
| 11 |
Valtteri Bottas |
Williams-Mercedes |
1:35.920 |
1.595 |
| 12 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
Toro Rosso-Renault |
1:35.972 |
1.647 |
| 13 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India-Mercedes |
1:35.998 |
1.673 |
| 14 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
1:36.366 |
2.041 |
| 15 |
Adrian Sutil |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1:36.366 |
2.637 |
| 16 |
Esteban Gutierrez |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1:36.975 |
2.650 |
| 17 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Lotus-Renault |
1:37.259 |
2.934 |
| 18 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus-Renault |
1:37.599 |
3.274 |
| 19 |
Jules Bianchi |
Marussia-Ferrari |
1:37.800 |
3.475 |
| 20 |
Max Chilton |
Marussia-Ferrari |
1:38.247 |
3.922 |
| 21 |
Kamui Kobayashi |
Caterham-Renault |
1:38.257 |
3.932 |
| 22 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Caterham-Renault |
1:39.136 |
4.811 |
See below for Free Practice 1
| 1 |
Lewis Hamilton |
Mercedes |
1:37.502 |
|
| 2 |
Nico Rosberg |
Mercedes |
1:37.733 |
0.231 |
| 3 |
Fernando Alonso |
Ferrari |
1:37.953 |
0.451 |
| 4 |
Nico Hulkenberg |
Force India-Mercedes |
1:38.122 |
0.620 |
| 5 |
Jenson Button |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1:38.636 |
1.134 |
| 6 |
Kimi Raikkonen |
Ferrari |
1:38.783 |
1.281 |
| 7 |
Kevin Magnussen |
McLaren-Mercedes |
1:38.949 |
1.447 |
| 8 |
Daniil Kvyat |
Toro Rosso-Renault |
1:39.056 |
1.554 |
| 9 |
Sergio Perez |
Force India-Mercedes |
1:39.102 |
1.600 |
| 10 |
Sebastian Vettel |
Red Bull-Renault |
1:39.389 |
1.887 |
| 11 |
Felipe Massa |
Williams-Mercedes |
1:39.533 |
2.031 |
| 12 |
Jean-Eric Vergne |
Toro Rosso-Renault |
1:39.862 |
2.360 |
| 13 |
Felipe Nasr |
Williams-Mercedes |
1:40.078 |
2.576 |
| 14 |
Daniel Ricciardo |
Red Bull-Renault |
1:40.406 |
2.904 |
| 15 |
Adrian Sutil |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1:40.652 |
3.150 |
| 16 |
Pastor Maldonado |
Lotus-Renault |
1:40.793 |
3.291 |
| 17 |
Jules Bianchi |
Marussia-Ferrari |
1:40.$89 |
3.387 |
| 18 |
Giedo van der Garde |
Sauber-Ferrari |
1:40.913 |
3.411 |
| 19 |
Romain Grosjean |
Lotus-Renault |
1:41.036 |
3.534 |
| 20 |
Max Chilton |
Marussia-Ferrari |
1:41.794 |
4.292 |
| 21 |
Robin Frijns |
Caterham-Renault |
1:42.417 |
4.915 |
| 22 |
Marcus Ericsson |
Caterham-Renault |
1:42.711 |
5.209 |
CHECK OUT SPEEDCAFE.COM’S RACE GUIDE FOR BAHRAIN
