Oscar Piastri was fastest in the second practice session for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix, ahead of teammate Lando Norris as George Russell was third.
Piastri posted a 1:30.505, the fastest time in FP2, and was 0.154s ahead of his teammate Norris in the sister car, and while Russell was third, he was over half a second off the pace in the Mercedes.
Charles Leclerc, in the upgraded Ferrari, was fourth fastest, 0.540s away from the best time, as Kimi Antonelli concluded a decent session for Mercedes, fifth fastest, two tenths slower than his teammate.
Isack Hadjar continued his decent showing in the Racing Bulls and ended FP2 sixth fastest ahead of reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen who was seventh and over eighth tenths off the pace in the RB21.
Yuki Tsunoda, in the other RB21, finished the session down in 18th. Liam Lawson was 12th in the other VCARB.
Lewis Hamilton was eighth fastest in the second Ferrari, over a second off the pace and was 0.008s ahead of Oliver Bearman who was a strong ninth in the Haas despite missing FP1.
Carlos Sainz was tenth in the Williams ahead of teammate Alex Albon who was 11th.
There was a major moment for Fernando Alonso as his steering wheel got dislodged when he was turning. Luckily he did not crash as he was going slowly and managed to get the car back in one piece to the garage. The Spaniard was 15th overall.
Buildup towards FP2
The first practice session for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix was far from interesting as six main drivers gave way to rookies while the track was not yet rubbered in for the cars to be driver at their full potential.
As a result, the drivers were continuously complaining about grip with several moments off track as well lockups taking place as the track evolved.
Mercedes had a terrible morning as Antonelli spent the whole session in the garage after an issue with his W16 meant he only took part in 5 minutes of FP1. Frederik Vesti was in the other car as Russell watched on.
Ferrari brought an upgrade package, but Hamilton was not happy with his SF-25 early on. Will FP2 change the situation for the Reds?
Furthermore, the conditions and time of day when FP1 went down are different from those of qualifying and the race which means the actual pace of each car and the consequent pecking order could not be identified.
So with Verstappen back in his car, as well as Leclerc and Russell, it would be time to find out how the teams stack up against each other.
Behind the scenes though, there was the discussion regarding the V10 naturally aspirated engines with the meeting between the teams, the FIA and Formula One Management concluded. Read all about it here.
But for now, back to racing and let's see how FP2 went down.
FP2 Session Highlights
With the sun setting, the session started under the floodlights in humid and hot conditions with air temperature at 30 degrees Celsius while the track temperature was 36 degrees.
Leclerc, on his outlap, locked up as he starting acclimatizing himself with the track conditions after missing the first session.
"The ride is very bad. The car is jumping a lot," was the first message from Verstappen to the Red Bull pitwall. He was on Soft tyres early on.
Alonso reported a problem with his steering wheel, asking for it to be changed as t was switching off. Onboard footage showed the Spaniard's steering wheel coming off when he was turning.
Alonso fixed the wheel back and returned back to the pits, parked his car and got out of it...
Norris, on the other hand, said that he needed to swap his helmet, his Hans Device and clean his headrest.
Leclerc ran wide and on the kerbs while exiting Turn 15. It seems he might have damaged his brand new floor as a piece of carbon fiber appeared to fall off.
Hamilton, while on a push lap on Softs, went wide at Turn 8. He aborted and went for another attempt and went fastest - 39 minutes from the end. Leclerc soon went faster.
Aston Martin, in the meantime, were busy working on Alonso's car, with the front end removed with work underway to fix the steering issue.
Soon the whole grid bolted on the Soft tyres as qualifying simulations were on. Hulkenberg had a scruffy lap locking and and running wide on a couple of occasions.
Russell complained about helmet lift and asked to add spoiler to his lid. The team responded it was possible.
With less than 30 minutes remaining, Alonso rejoined the track...
Bearman had a snap going into the final corner and radioed that it was making him "very confused". Verstappen also seemed to have an issue in the final corner as he said his brakes "don't work" there.
With the final twenty minutes, the teams and drivers set out on some race simulations with high fuel loads.
Verstappen once again complained about his brakes and that they were not "decelerating well".
Hadjar had a moment out on track with Hulkenberg, both on long runs, as the former almost ran into the rear of the #27 Sauber.
Russell had an off-track excursion at Turn 10, missing the corner, but returning to the track after a ride in the run-off area.
Tsunoda complained about his brakes saying the front lockup is "insane".
The session was concluded with practice starts.
Bahrain GP FP2 Classification
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