[ad_1]
Mercedes’ George Russell completed a clean sweep of Friday’s two practice sessions at the Sakhir Grand Prix while replacing Lewis Hamilton.
Russell beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.128 seconds with Valtteri Bottas’ second Mercedes 11th.
The Finn set the fastest lap of the session, just under 0.2 seconds faster than Russell, but was timed out for exceeding the limits of the track.
Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez was third ahead of Renault’s Esteban Ocon.
It was a very accomplished performance by Russell, 22, in a car he hadn’t driven before after being drafted after Hamilton tested positive for coronavirus.
Russell described the Sakhir circuit, a shortened version of the traditional setup used for last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix, as “tricky” and “not easy”.
“It’s going to be very tight in qualifying and in the race it’s going to be a carnage,” he added.
“I’m learning a lot on every lap. The lap times are small but misleading and not a true representation of pace. FP2 wasn’t a great session for me, I struggled especially on high fuel and that’s going to be.” key on Sunday, I still have a lot of work to do to be comfortable in the car and with the set-up. “
At 6ft 1in, Russell is five inches taller than Hamilton and revealed Thursday that it was a “perfect fit” to get into the car. You have also been required to wear driving boots one size smaller.
“I’m pretty beaten and bruised,” he said. “We have been through what needs to change and it is not the job of a moment, changing the seat here and there. We are working hard to improve that for Sunday.
“I’m doing my best to be as prepared as possible, but jumping into the car two days early is tough.
“Just because I’m the fastest today doesn’t mean I’m going to be there tomorrow. I’m probably a good tenth and a half behind Valtteri on low fuel and Verstappen was incredibly fast on long runs.”
Bottas seemed to have a bit of pace on the Briton, but was visibly more nervous, especially through the bumpy middle sector of the new shorter layout of the Bahrain F1 track which is being used for the first time this weekend.
It was in that sector that Bottas made his mistake, slipping slightly through turn eight and having his time ruled out.
Russell also set the pace in the first session, when Bottas damaged his car while driving over a curb, also at turn eight.
In terms of race pace on the soft tire, Russell appeared to be experiencing further tire degradation, but the two were very even on the hard tire, which will likely be the favorite in the race.
Bottas also had two slight moments off the track in his careers, sliding widely through turns five and six.
“It was a pretty tough day,” Bottas said. “In the first session, in the first race, I broke the ground going over the curbs at turn eight.
“Practice two felt good, I didn’t do any laps on the soft tire, I had a decent medium lap but it was knocked out by the track boundaries. The long runs were pretty consistent, but Red Bull on the medium tire looked pretty fast. “.
Red Bull’s Alexander Albon was fifth fastest, ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Daniil Kvyat, Lance Stroll’s Racing Point second, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz.
Ferrari had a desperate session. Sebastian Vettel made two laps and achieved only the 16th fastest time, while Charles Leclerc had a driveshaft failure after running over a curb at the exit of Turn Eight early in the session and was unable to start again. It was the last without setting a time.
New F1 guys Pietro Fittipaldi and Jack Aitken finished 18th and 19th for Haas and Williams respectively.
Fittipaldi, grandson of two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who replaces Romain Grosjean after the Frenchman’s fierce accident at this track last Sunday, was just over three tenths slower than his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen.
British-Korean driver Aitken got his break at Williams after Russell’s switch to Mercedes. The 25-year-old finished half a second slower than his teammate Nicholas Latifi.
