Bahrain GP: Verstappen over Norris in Practice 2
As he did in Practice 1, #33 Red Bull Honda ace Max Verstappen turned the fastest lap in the 2nd Practice session for the Bahrain GP Friday evening – the opening F1 race of 2021.
Lando Norris was 2nd quick, the #4 McLaren man is really looking quick out there. He was just 0.095s slower than Verstappen.
Lewis Hamilton was 3rd quick in the #44 Mercedes 0.235s behind while Carlos Sainz Jr. adapted to his Ferrari well, and went 4th quick just 0.05s behind Hamilton.
Valtteri Bottas rounded out the top-5 in the #77 Mercedes 0.371s behind Verstappen.
The true pecking order won’t be known until qualifying tomorrow, as the drivers love to remind us. But nonetheless, Mercedes have certainly made a step forward since testing, with the W12 looking more stable out on track. But can they challenge Red Bull? Verstappen has looked supreme so far…
Down at Aston Martin Sebastian Vettel must be thinking it’s time to retire. He was 4/10ths behind his teammate Lance Stroll – 0.922s behind Verstappen, and down in 14th.
The two Haas car improved to be just 2.4s, and 2.6s off the pace, a big improvement, with Mick Schumacher over Nikita Mazepin.
Quotes
Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
Lewis Hamilton (3rd, 1:31.082): “The car wasn’t where we wanted it by this weekend. It’s looking better but still not perfect so we’re working as hard as we can. We still have a hill to climb but we’re staying positive. We thought Red Bull would be as fast as they are, so we know they are leading at the moment. McLaren are looking great, and it’s good to see them taking a step. It will be interesting to see how the long runs are. Stability – it’s all about having a stable car, and being able to make the tires last. That’s going to be key in this climate, and with the wind we have here. (On the forecast of a windy Sunday)… That’s not great for us! The rear is unstable as it is but I’m sure everyone will be in the same boat – some a little more, some a little less. For people at home trying to understand, when you approach a corner, and the rear moves, you’re trying to find that tipping point. The tipping point used to be further away with more downforce on the car – now it falls away much quicker than normal. The performance we’ve lost on tires this year doesn’t help but we’ll work away tonight, and try to find a way.”
Valtteri Bottas (5th, 1:31.218): “First, the car felt better than in testing. It felt like we’re still not yet there with the car balance, but it was a trouble-free day, and no big issues. I think the main thing in my mind is that we have plenty of work to do if we want to fight for the pole this weekend. Inconsistency in the balance, especially in the rear-end was one area to work on from testing, and in terms of set-up approach, things improved, and the car does feel better but it’s not quite yet where we would want it. We still have tonight, and tomorrow morning to try, and figure it out. The last long run we did was pretty difficult: I couldn’t really put any laps together, and the car felt nearly undriveable at times. But it’s only Friday, and that’s why we do practice. We’re definitely in the mix. McLaren looked strong today, so too Red Bull as expected. I think we are up there – we’re aren’t the fastest but we’re not too far off it. We’ll see tomorrow.”
Andrew Shovlin: “We’ve had a productive day. The first session was a bit too hot to be representative but it was still useful for testing the changes we’ve made to the car since last week, and we do seem to have improved the overall balance. The second session had a much cooler track which better matches qualifying, and the race so we were able to focus on some single lap practice, and long runs at the end. We’ve still got quite a bit of work to do, especially on the long runs where we didn’t look strong. We need more pace, and better degradation in order to be competitive but both those problems are linked to the same cause so hopefully we can make some progress overnight.”
Red Bull Racing
Max Verstappen (1st, 1:30.847): “It’s been a good day again, and with the heat, and the wind it is not easy to find a perfect balance around the whole lap but overall I would say it was a positive day. There are still things to improve, and look into for tomorrow, tire wise, and a bit of balance tuning, plus I think it will be even more windy which is a challenge for everyone in these cars. I am pretty happy with the start of the weekend but tomorrow is a different day, and we have to see whether we can do it in qualifying when it counts.”
Sergio Perez (10th, 1:31.503): “It feels great to finally get into a race weekend, and I’m pleased so far with how things are going. I’m settling in well, and taking some steps forwards. If I were to summarize today, I’ve got some work to do on the short runs as over one lap I don’t quite feel the car is within me just yet, and I still have to think about what the car is doing, but in the long runs I’m more comfortable, and I think the pace is there so that’s positive. I think we have some work to do on the soft tire as there is also room for improvement there, but the car is performing well, we have good pace, and tomorrow it will be pretty close in qualifying so we need to make sure we get it right, and have a good start to the season.”
McLaren F1 Team
Lando Norris (2nd, 1:30.942): “A reasonable first day back in the car. I think we started where we left off in testing, which is a good thing. The car has improved in some areas, which is positive, but other areas have got a little bit worse. It’s been a tricky day to put it all together but on the whole I’m happy. Here, and there we’ve got some work to do for tomorrow, but if we can put it together, hopefully we can be competitive. We seem to be very close to AlphaTauri, Ferrari, and other cars, so tomorrow will definitely be tight, but we’ll see what we can do.”
Daniel Ricciardo (6th, 1:31.230): “I thought having an hour session instead of 90 minutes meant it would be a bit easier, with less time on track – but it was pretty chaotic actually. You feel the half-hour. It goes quick. I think it was quite fortunate that we were here a couple of weeks ago, so we could hit the ground running. I think you need to make the most of that track time. I’m still getting there, I still want to find a few things in the car, and obviously within myself. In FP2 I made some inroads, but hopefully I’ll find another step tomorrow to get more where I want to be.”
Andrea Stella, Racing Director: “The first day of practice for a new season is always very busy, but today was intense, with the length of the sessions reduced from 90 to 60 minutes. Happily, we didn’t have any major problems. The team did a good job to ensure both our busy sessions progressed smoothly,, and we completed our program. The change of conditions from day to night,, and the major variable of the wind always keeps it interesting in Bahrain. In addition, the field looks incredibly compact, and competitive, so there’s a lot of work to do to be ready for qualifying, and the race – but we’ve started with a productive Friday.”
Zak Brown:
Aston Martin Cognizant F1 Team
Lance Stroll (8th, 1:31.393): “It was great to be back in the car today, and I’m excited to get racing again. Today was the first real indication of everyone’s performance, and you can see that the middle of the grid is very close, and competitive. It was a little tricky on track with the high winds – a bit like it was in testing at times. Today’s practice sessions also reminded me just how important it is to get the little details right, so we will work hard tonight, and go over all the data to find improvements where we can.”
Sebastian Vettel (14th, 1:31.769): “It’s very busy with less time in the practice sessions, but we were able to get a lot out of it. Every lap helps me get more used to the car, and I’m able to find more of a rhythm. I’m still trying a lot of things, and learning as I go, so I’m looking forward to going over the data, and coming back tomorrow with the insights we have gained. The car was really promising in some corners, and less so in others, but that’s normal at this stage of the season. We will work tonight to find a more consistent balance. As you can see, the midfield is very tight, and everyone is learning quickly, but I hope we will be a factor.”
Otmar Szafnauer, Chief Operating Officer: “The practice sessions are shorter for everyone this year, but the goals are the same. It’s about making sure you’re able to complete your performance runs, and race simulations. We made progress with both of those objectives, collected a large amount of information, and have learned more about the car, and its characteristics. We’ve made progress since we were here for testing, but the conditions were quite windy in the second session,, and it’s still not easy to have a clear picture of where we sit in the pecking order just yet. On Sebastian’s side, he had a disrupted test, so it was about getting him as much track time as possible today. The more comfortable he is with the car, the more he can push. For Lance, it was a productive day, and plenty of laps completed as we head into the weekend. We still need to improve our pace over a single lap, and that’s one of the priorities as we prepare for final practice, and qualifying tomorrow.”
Alpine F1 Team
Esteban Ocon (11th, 1:31.601): “It’s good to be back in the car again in preparation for a race weekend. I think we’ve had a solid day as we made an improvement from FP1 to FP2. We’ve discovered a lot of things between now, and testing, so it was good to carry that on during today’s practice. We still need to work hard, and find more details, though,, and there’s certainly more potential to unlock from the car. It’s only Friday, and we know tomorrow is when it counts. I quite enjoyed the shorter practice sessions. It means you have to focus a lot more on each run as every bit of track time counts.”
Fernando Alonso (15th, 1:31.770): “It was fantastic to be back in a free practice session today in Formula 1. You feel the extra adrenaline with the traffic, and everything going on around you; it’s very different to testing. It felt good, and I felt the racing spirit each lap, which I enjoyed. We got through our program in the first session in very hot conditions, and then some long runs this evening as the track cooled for FP2. We do still need to fine tune some of the car setup, and analyze the data a bit more, but, overall, I’m happy with my day.”
Davide Brivio, Racing Director: “We did quite a lot of work today. For FP1, we tried some different settings on the car, and then, this evening, the team did a good job, and we were able to improve the balance of the car. I think we made a step in the second session, and we improved our pace. Now it’s time for us to analyze what we’ve done, and identify the areas where we can make further improvements. We will keep looking forward as a team, and continue to work. The aim is to make another further step for tomorrow’s practice, and get ready ahead of qualifying.”
Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow
Carlos Sainz (4th, 1:31.127):
Charles Leclerc (12th, 1:31.612):
Mattia Binotto, Team Principal:
Laurent Mekies, Sporting Director:
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Yuki Tsunoda (7th, 1:31.294): “It’s been a great day – I’ve experienced my first practice sessions in the car as a Formula 1 driver, and it’s really exciting. I think my passion has really shone through today, and I’m looking forward to showing my full potential behind the wheel tomorrow in qualifying. We’ve got great pace this weekend as a team, and I’m keen to see how I perform tomorrow in my first F1 qualifying session. I’m still learning a lot in the car, and it’s obviously only my first race weekend so I’m keen to not put too much pressure on myself but I’m looking forward to getting out on track for my first race, and seeing what we can do.”
Pierre Gasly (9th, 1:31.483): “I think it’s been a good start to the weekend – the car felt strong in both sessions, and I’m happy with it. We didn’t quite put it together this evening, on our fast lap, but overall, I think there are a lot of positives to take-away from today, and I’m excited now to see what we can do in qualifying tomorrow. The long run with high fuel, that we completed in preparation for the race, felt strong so I think there are some good signs but it’s obviously only the first day, so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. We’ll fine-tune everything tonight with the engineers, and I think we’ll be in a good position for tomorrow. I hope that we can get into Q3 in qualifying – that’s our target –, and if we manage that we should be in a position to fight for some good points come race day.”
Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer: “I’m excited to be back on track racing again – we were obviously here testing a few weeks ago but it feels completely different being here in Bahrain for a race weekend. Due to each session only lasting an hour this season, we had a full run plan to get through. It’s difficult to learn a lot from FP1 here, due to the high track temperatures being drastically different to those that we’ll experience in qualifying, and the race, so we focused on some aero understanding during that session. FP2 followed a normal plan – with a medium tire run, followed by the softer compound. Both drivers put in good laps on the performance runs, which was extremely positive in more representative conditions this evening. The longer runs we completed will allow us to confirm that the data gathered during testing here is relevant for the race weekend. Unfortunately, we saw something we weren’t comfortable with in the data on Yuki’s car, so we called him in as a precaution, however this was just a few minutes before the end of the session so had no impact on our running. Overall, I think we had a really positive day today, and I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”
Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN
Antonio Giovinazzi (13th, 1:31.740): “It was a good start to build on the positive feeling we had after testing. Today’s conditions were quite different, it was way hotter in the day, but we are still happy with our pace in both the short, and long runs. The field looks really tight, so we will need to put everything together to gain places in qualifying. The shorter practice sessions didn’t really affect us much: in the end, we spent a lot of time in the garage in FP1 in the old system anyway so now there is a bit more action on track. We now need to go, and find another bit of time with the engineers, and get ready for qualifying: the target is to get into Q2, and then see what we are able to fight for.”
Kimi Raikkonen (16th, 1:31.862): “A regular first day in which we were able to try various things. Even though the conditions were quite different from what we experienced in testing, the feel of the car was similar, which allowed us to take up where we left off two weeks ago. We had a solid start, and were able to work on the set-up. Of course, losing some time because of the incident was not ideal, but we have already so much data from testing that it wasn’t a big setback. We’re looking forward to seeing where we stand tomorrow: we still have to refine a few things tonight but we should be ok.”
Haas F1 Team
Mick Schumacher (18th, 1:33.297): “FP1 was in really hot conditions, which was something I hadn’t really experienced yet. It was cooking the tires up,, and obviously the cockpit as well. But it was good for learning – understanding how the car behaves in those conditions. Moving into FP2, we knew the conditions would be completely different. Unfortunately, the wind also changed, it was something that everybody had to get used to, and some people were struggling with it – so were we. Once we got the info on how to approach the corners everything then seemed a bit better. The long run was also interesting for us,, and it was more mileage for me really. I felt comfortable in the car, which is a good sign, and shows that we did enough work to prepare myself to get in, and be comfortable. I know there’s a lot to improve from my side still, as a driver I know I have the tools to improve the lap time. I’ll be working hard on myself to keep improving, and keep learning.”
Nikita Mazepin (20th, 1:33.449): “It was very special for me to take part in my first FP1, and FP2 sessions. That alone was very positive. On the technical side the day was quite challenging. There’s been a lot of wind around,, and it wasn’t very consistent. These cars, compared to Formula 2, are much more effective with the wind in a positive way, and also in a negative way. The car was quite difficult at times. Being realistic, we were very fortunate with the conditions achieved on the final day of testing, they were very fast. The track today was much slower, and that made driving today much more challenging – for us at least. With 23 rounds you’re going to experience very different things. It’s about getting the most experience banked, and that’s definitely happened today.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “Even if the results don’t show it – not a bad day for us. I was pretty happy with FP1. We got all our laps in, and there were no mistakes made, it was solid throughout. The feedback from the drivers was good, and the car had a decent balance. In FP2 we were then struggling to find the balance with both of the guys, but that’s part of the learning curve.”
Williams Racing
George Russell (17th, 1:32.331): “It was obviously tricky conditions today, and I think the track temperature was up at about 48 degrees at some points in FP1, which is incredibly hot. FP2 felt pretty good, and our high fuel pace was better than expected even with these gusty winds, so I was pleasantly surprised by that. Equally the wind is changing so much at the moment, which affects everybody a huge amount, but I believe our car is more sensitive to these changes. Fingers crossed it is either calm or in a favorable direction tomorrow, and Sunday. I think it will be a long, and tricky race, but I am looking forward to it.”
Nicholas Latifi (19th, 1:33.400): “It was a difficult one today. It was very tricky,, and I was struggling to find the right balance with the car. We had different issues in different practice sessions. FP1 was one thing, and we tried to solve it, and went too far the other way. I wasn’t satisfied in FP2 on the low or high fuel, so we have a lot of work to do tonight. We need to dig into the data, and see what we can find.”
Dave Robson, Senior Race Engineer: “It was hot this afternoon, meaning that the tire performance dominated the FP1 running. Both George, and Nicholas completed their programs, and had no issues with the car. The cooler evening session offered more suitable conditions for qualifying, and race preparation, and we were able to complete useful running on both cars despite the shorter Free Practice session format this year. We have had a very successful day, have collected all the data we wanted, and had a first proper look at a qualifying, and race simulation using the race tires for this weekend. The performance of the car is still below what we would like, but we are making progress, and we are confident that we can push the car hard for the remainder of this weekend, especially on Sunday. George enjoyed a calm, and well-constructed day during which he built-up his confidence in the car, finishing with a well measured stint on the qualifying C4 tire. Nicholas made a few changes to his car ahead of FP2, but the change of wind for the evening session dominated the balance, and he found it a little difficult to recover his momentum from FP1. He will reset overnight, and then use FP3 to get himself ready for the key qualifying session.”
Practice 2 Results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | TIME | GAP | LAPS |
| 1 | 33 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:30.847 | +0.000s | 23 |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 1:30.942 | +0.095s | 25 |
| 3 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:31.082 | +0.235s | 24 |
| 4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Ferrari | 1:31.127 | +0.280s | 26 |
| 5 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 1:31.218 | +0.371s | 23 |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren Mercedes | 1:31.230 | +0.383s | 22 |
| 7 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:31.294 | +0.447s | 23 |
| 8 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Mercedes | 1:31.393 | +0.546s | 24 |
| 9 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri Honda | 1:31.483 | +0.636s | 27 |
| 10 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda | 1:31.503 | +0.656s | 23 |
| 11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 1:31.601 | +0.754s | 24 |
| 12 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:31.612 | +0.765s | 26 |
| 13 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:31.740 | +0.893s | 27 |
| 14 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin Mercedes | 1:31.769 | +0.922s | 26 |
| 15 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine Renault | 1:31.770 | +0.923s | 24 |
| 16 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari | 1:31.862 | +1.015s | 15 |
| 17 | 63 | George Russell | Williams Mercedes | 1:32.331 | +1.484s | 28 |
| 18 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas Ferrari | 1:33.297 | +2.450s | 24 |
| 19 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes | 1:33.400 | +2.553s | 28 |
| 20 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas Ferrari | 1:33.449 | +2.602s | 19 |