Day 2's morning testing done: Hamilton leads with Russell far behind
F1 News
- GPblog.com
It's the second day of testing action at Bahrain and with the morning session done, Lewis Hamilton showed the outright pace Ferrari had by obliterating Lando's quickest time yesterday by around a second with a 1:29.379.
George Russell came in 4 tenths behind the Ferrari driver, with Carlos Sainz slotting in P3 a total 7 tenths behind the seven-time world champion.
In the end George Russell was the most productive driver of the session having completed 71 laps, behind him came Esteban Ocon at 69 and Nico Hulkenberg did 56 laps in total.
As it happened
Teams were not as eager to get our out on track, as only Hulkenberg and Russell left once lights turned green. That could be because of the weather, as the Briton reported no grip on the team radio. Rain droplets also appeared on Gasly's and Piastri's visor.
After the first hour, Hamilton led the session with a 1:30.0 on the C3 tyres. Ten minutes later, as more rain appeared on track, Piastri went wide entering Sector 3, and Sainz also had understeered off the track in the same corner. That was not the only interesting moment the Spaniard had: As he completed a practice start, Lawson's RB21 suddenly appeared alongside him.
Entering the halfway point of the session, Hamilton led with the same time, but both the seven-time world champion and Piastri locked up into Turn 1 completing their runs. Lap times began to improve just before the morning session entered the final hour. Russell briefly took the lead after Sainz placed himself right behind Hamilton. Shortly after the Ferrari driver improved on the C3 tyres with a 1:29.6, beating yesterday's fastest time by around 7 tenths.
With roughly 35 minutes to go in the session, Piastri and Hulkenberg made slight contact into Turn 8. The German slowed down in the corner, while the McLaren driver overshot it, therefore, his front wing caught the Sauber. Luckily for the teams, it seems there was no major damage for either drivers.
George Russell was then spotted trying to remove what looked like a piece of debris from the sidepod of his car, to stop it from getting in the cooling inlets and causing damage to the radiators and the rest of the internal components of his W16.
After the ten minute mark, Red Bull Racing put up the screens around Lawson's garage. It is not yet known if the number 30 car had an issue that prevented him from taking the track for a more productive session. The New Zealander completed only 28 laps total.
With 5 minutes to go the VSC was deployed, followed by the Safety Car and a subsequent red flag to test the neutralising procedures. Afterward Ocon, Piastri, and Russell took the track again to perform practice starts.
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