Bahrain Grand Prix: What happened in FP2

Max Verstappen topped the second Bahrain Grand Prix practice session for Red Bull with a time of 1m30.847s.

Key moments:

> Verstappen faster than Norris by 0.095s
> Hamilton third overall for Mercedes
> Busy session as teams and drivers settle into the new 60 minute format
> Raikkonen has an off at Turn 2, damaging his front wing and causing brief yellow flag
> AlphaTauri’s session draws to a premature close in the final five minutes due to a systems error

Lando Norris was second for McLaren, having spent most of the session at the sharp end of the timing screen.

Lewis Hamilton ended the session in third in the best of the Mercedes.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was the first driver to hit the track at the top of the hour, while Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi was the first driver to top the timesheets with a laptime of 1m32.45s.

Giovinazzi was almost immediately deposed by AlphaTauri rookie Yuki Tsunoda, then a yellow flag was thrown briefly for Kimi Raikkonen’s trip into the gravel and barrier at Turn 2. Raikkonen finished the session in 16th.

Our first casualty of the barriers in 2021 🤕

The start of Kimi's FP2 session didn't go to plan#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/1WsTjTnvhF

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 26, 2021

Tsunoda’s session came to an early end five minutes before the flag when AlphaTauri suffered a systems issue. He was sitting seventh on the board, with team-mate Pierre Gasly in ninth.

Carlos Sainz Jr was the best of the two Ferrari drivers in fourth, while Charles Leclerc was 12th.

Practice 2 Results