The second session of the weekend got underway under the lights at the Bahrain International Circut, with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll the first to leave the pits and take to the track.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri went side by side with one of the Alpha Tauri cars down the main straight, but Stroll was parked in the middle of the track. Luckily, Piastri was able to go down the inside and keep control of the MCL60, but it could have been very nasty if he couldn’t.
As the first quarter of the hour passed, it was a Ferrari 1-2, with Charles Leclerc only 0.113 seconds ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz.
Lewis Hamilton jumped up to third place, with the Alpine pair of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon sitting fourth and fifth.
“I also feel like the car is jumping around a lot more than testing” was the message sent from Max Verstappen back to his team, with the Bahrain Grand Prix not going to plan for the double World Champion so far. However, mind games could be being played here.
Then just before the halfway point in the session, Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll both climbed up the leaderboard as far as second and third before others improved around them.
It was Fernando Alonso that was fastest when we reached the second half of the floodlit running. Sergio Perez was second and Charles Leclerc was in third.
With ten minutes left on the clock, it was still the two-time World Champion, Fernando Alonso that was leading the timesheets.
Red Bull’s Verstappen and Perez followed with Charles Leclerc and Nico Hulkenberg rounding out the top five, with the order remaining unchanged as the session came to a close.
Here is how the top ten looked at the end of the session:
Formula One returns on Saturday for both Free Practice Two and Qualifying, with coverage here on The Apex Motorsport across our website and social media accounts.