Mercedes ended the first day of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix quickest of all with Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell.
Running under the floodlights for the first time in the weekend, Hamilton’s 1’30.374 set on soft tyres was two tenths quicker than Russell with Fernando Alonso in third.
After seven of the ten teams avoided the soft compound through the first hour of practice, everyone made sure to run them in the cooler, more representative conditions of the night session. The majority of the field ran solely on the red-walled tyres throughout the session.
With teams eager to focus on high-fuel runs for the later phase of the session, drivers’ quickest times were set at the middle phase of the hour. Hamilton topped the times with a push lap of a 1’30.374, with team mate Russell closest to him.
Alonso was the nearest to the Mercedes in third ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr’s Ferrari. Oscar Piastri was fifth for McLaren ahead of world champion Max Verstappen. After being slowest in first practice, Nico Hulkenberg was seventh for Haas, with Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez the top ten.
Aside from typical grumbles about traffic, the only major incident of note during the session occurred at the start when Valtteri Bottas appeared to cross the pit exit light under a red light before practice began. The Sauber driver is currently under investigation by the stewards.
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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix second practice result
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2024 Bahrain Grand Prix
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