Lewis Hamilton fronted a Mercedes 1-2 in the second practice session for Formula 1’s season-opening 2024 round in Bahrain this weekend.
The seven-time champion emerged quickest with a 1:30.374s in the sole practice hour to be run in representative twilight conditions ahead of Friday’s qualifying.
George Russell lagged two-tenths behind his team-mate, with Fernando Alonso the closest rival to the Mercedes pair as he put his Aston Martin up in third place.
Carlos Sainz was the lead Ferrari in fourth position, a further tenth back on his Spanish compatriot, with Oscar Piastri ensuring McLaren ended inside the top five.
However, the second McLaren of Lando Norris propped up at the bottom of the timesheets with an unrepresentative time, 2.2s off Hamilton’s benchmark pace.
Max Verstappen enters the opener as the overwhelming favourite, but the reigning World Champion ended up almost half a second adrift down in sixth place.
Meanwhile, team-mate Sergio Perez was even further back in 10th, with the two Red Bull drivers separated by Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll and Charles Leclerc.
The Williams of Alex Albon was in 11th place as the last driver to be situated within a second, as Daniel Ricciardo was unable to replicate RB’s impressive FP1.
Logan Sargeant lagged four-tenths behind the sister Williams car in 13th place, ahead of Kevin Magnussen’s Haas and Yuki Tsunoda in the slowest of the RB cars.
Alpine’s struggles continued as Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon wound up 16th and 18th fastest, with Sauber also appearing to be lagging off the ultimate pace.
