2020 Sakhir Grand Prix FP2 Report & Highlights: Mercedes sub Russell beats Verstappen to complete clean sweep Friday at Sakhir GP

George Russell continued the impressive start to his Mercedes debut at the Sakhir Grand Prix, leading his second consecutive session on Friday in Free Practice 2, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen again took second place, ahead of Racing Point de Sergio Pérez.

It was difficult for any driver to get a perfectly clean lap on the narrow 3.5km Bahrain International Circuit outer track, which is just 0.2km longer than Monaco. But once the qualifying simulations were complete, it was Russell who, as in FP1, topped the timesheets with a lap of 54.713, some two-tenths slower than he managed in the opening session of the weekend.

READ MORE: Sakhir GP is not a shootout between Russell and Bottas for the Mercedes 2022 seat, insists Wolff

Valtteri Bottas couldn’t get within three-tenths of his teammate in FP1 and on paper his FP2 performance was even worse, the Finn finished in P11 and didn’t seem entirely comfortable in the shorter circuit setup. .

But having exceeded the track limits at Turn 8 in his two qualifying simulation laps and having either aborted the laps or eliminated them, Bottas will be hoping to turn the tables on Saturday, with that P11 time set in the hard tires at the beginning of the session.

Behind Russell, Verstappen was 0.128 seconds behind, and both the Dutchman and his Red Bull teammate fifth-placed Alex Albon complained of understeer on their RB16s. Perez took an impressive third place, just 0.025 seconds behind Verstappen, while a strong lap from Esteban Ocon put him in fourth place, suggesting that Renault was having a better time with the lower required downforce setup this weekend. .

After Albon in fifth place came Daniil Kvyat’s AlphaTauri, a resounding first day for the Russian and his team as he finished ahead of Lance Stroll’s second Racing Point and Daniel Ricciardo’s second Renault, with Pierre Gasly and the McLaren leading the way. of Carlos. Sainz, who complained of a loss of synchronization in his gears midway through his long run simulation, at P9 and P10, Gasly suffered a scare in the final moments of the session after being painfully hit on the finger by flying gravel. .

HOW IT HAPPENED – Second practice at Sakhir

Behind Bottas’ time for eleventh place, Kimi Raikkonen was twelfth ahead of his Alfa Romeo teammate Antonio Giovinazzi, the two Ferrari-powered cars that were seen tentatively experimenting with a trailer early in the session on the rapid. Sakhir GP track, while Haas’s Kevin Magnussen was 14th, ahead of Nichol Latifi’s Williams.

Meanwhile, it was a session to forget for Ferrari on Friday night. Sebastian Vettel finished in 16th place, turning at first at Turn 2, then turning dramatically again in front of Magnussen at Turn 5 on his first fastest lap in qualifying simulations, before running another. However, at least his car was working as his teammate Charles Leclerc suffered a driveshaft problem after just two laps and was unable to set a time.

Meanwhile, like his teammate, Lando Norris was also having trouble, running over a curb and damaging his floor early on, forcing his McLaren team to carry out repairs, before suffering a problem that sent him back. to the pits. The Briton, fourth in the Bahrain Grand Prix five days ago, finished P17, ahead of two F1 rookies Pietro Fittipaldi de Haas and Jack Aitken of Williams, who kept their noses clean in FP2, while the luck Timeless -less Leclerc completed the field.

READ MORE: It’s a Red Bull seat or a year on the bench for Albon in 2021, says Horner

So it has been an impressive opening tactic at Mercedes on George Russell’s part. But with Red Bull looking close to the Silver Arrows, Bottas has yet to really show his true pace, and with FP2 having given us a taste of how frantic qualifying could be, there is still a lot to play for in Bahrain.