F1 Bahrain Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton Leads Mercedes 1-2 in FP2, Verstappen Finishes 6th

Lewis Hamilton gave the Mercedes team a huge boost on Thursday when he showed his talent by finishing first in FP2 for the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix. Second place went to teammate George Russell, and Max Verstappen of Red Bull came in sixth. Third place went to Fernando Alonso, with Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri following closely behind.

With a top performance of 1 minute, 30.37 seconds in free practice 2, Hamilton has given the Mercedes camp reason to be optimistic. Mercedes is starting the 2024 Formula One season with high hopes that their new W15 chassis will represent a turnaround after two difficult years. With a benchmark time of 1:30.751s within the first six minutes of the practice, Hamilton set the tone early on. Throughout the second practice session, he kept a half-second advantage over Verstappen.

Verstappen took comfort in his race simulation, where he beat Hamilton to the finish line and became the fastest contender, despite Hamilton's overwhelming lead. As the qualifying simulation periods ran out, Hamilton maintained his lead over Russell, Alonso, Sainz, Piastri, and Verstappen. 

F1 Bahrain Grand Prix: FP2 Result

Teams started their runs on a variety of compounds, from medium to soft, with the leaders starting on the red-walled Pirelli rubber. The early pace was established by Sainz in the 1m31s range, but Sergio Perez soon overtook him with a timing of 1m31.629s. At one point, Charles Leclerc had the lead with a time of 1 minute, 31.578 seconds, but Hamilton quickly reclaimed the position with a time of 1 minute, 30.751 seconds. With a time of 1 minute, 31.03 seconds, Alonso finished second, dividing the top two.

After falling half a second shy of Hamilton's benchmark on his first lap with the W15, Verstappen continued to improve on the same tyres but was unable to catch up to the seven-time champion. Hamilton's initial soft-tyre time would have been better than Verstappen's best, which was 1 minute and 38 seconds.

Williams' Albon and Sargeant finished eleventh and thirteenth, respectively, in the middle of the pack, with FP1 leader Ricciardo wedged in twelveth. For Haas, Magnussen took 14th place, and Tsunoda came in 15th. While Gasly took 16th for Alpine, Bottas finished 17th after being investigated for a pit lane violation.

After abandoning his flying lap owing to an earlier error, Norris finished the day in last place, with Ocon and Zhou occupying the 18th and 19th positions, respectively.