The second free practice session of the Sakhir GP has ended with George Russell setting the fastest time, with 0.54,713s. On the second place we had Max Verstappen with 0.54,841s and Sergio Perez on 3rd with 0.54,866s. The rest who completed the top 10 of the session were: Russell, Verstappen, Perez, Ocon, Albon, Kvyat, Stroll, Ricciardo, Gasly and Sainz. 

Before the second free practice took place, we had quite a view during FP1 earlier today. George Russell, who’s replacing currently sick Lewis Hamilton was able to top the leaderboard in his debut stint in the W11 this weekend. Although it has been only FP1, this already surely put a lot of pressure on Bottas, who needs to prove himself this weekend, especially now that Hamilton is absent from the cockpit. 

FP1: Valtteri Bottas vs George Russell 👀⏱#SakhirGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/iRE7FZENWl

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 4, 2020

FP2 began with the artificial lights on, as it is way past sunset in Bahrain, and temperatures of around 24C of air temperature and 26C of track temperature and clear conditions for the session to go. 

Pietro Fittipaldi, the replacement for Romain Grosjean this weekend at Haas has been the first driver out on the track, setting a lap time of 0.56,949s. He was soon joined on the track by the Alfa Romeo and McLaren drivers as well as Kevin Magnussen. It was soon Sainz who topped the leaderboard, with the time of 0.55,699s, who then has been pushed out that spot by the Racing Points and dropped down to P3. 

The outer track of the Sakhir circuit has only 3.543km, hence the lap times below 1 minute. As we’ve seen during the FP1, this might cause a lot of traffic issues on track, which can definitely have a big impact at least on the qualifying on Saturday. This is the first time the outer circuit has been used. 

Sebastian Vettel had a little moment with 1h 15 min to go of the session and spun at Turn 2, but was able to recover from it very quickly and carry on. Afterwards it was unfortunately Charles Leclerc who communicated with the team via team radio that something broke in his car, and he had to roll into the pitlane. It was most likely his gearbox that decided to give up. The FP2 definitely did not begin on an easy note for Ferrari. Leclerc was out of the car and that most likely meant the end of the session for the young Monegasque. 

Lando Norris also communicated with his team that there might be some damage to the floor of his McLaren, after running over a curb. The team was optimistic to get him out on the track again, so Norris stayed in the car during the work. 

With around an hour before the end of the session it was Verstappen who topped the board, with 0.55,043s. At this point we had every driver out on the track with a set time, beside Leclerc due to the issues with his car. Verstappen was later replaced on the top by Perez, who went 0.54,866s. 

Vettel had another spin in sector 2, that caused a yellow flag for a moment but was able to recover and continue. He went just in front of Magnussen, who was able to avoid contact with the Ferrari driver. 

With less than 45 minutes to go for FP2, Bottas went P1 with 0.54,506s. His track time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 8, which meant George Russell went fastest at that point of the session, with the time of 0.54,713s. During the following lap Bottas exceeded the track limits again and aborted his lap. 

Both Red Bull drivers complained about the understeer in their cars. At that point of the session, Verstappen was 3rd and Albon was 5th. Norris suffered another issue with his car, being forced to go back to the pits. 25 minutes before the end of the session his teammate, Sainz, also suffered a problem with his McLaren and was forced to return to the pits as well. 

With just 10 minutes to go, the top 10 was composed of: Russell, Verstappen, Perez, Ocon, Albon, Kvyat, Stroll, Ricciardo, Gasly and Sainz. 

The final classification of the session at Sakhir: 

FP2 CLASSIFICATION ⏱

2/2 on Friday for @GeorgeRussell63!#SakhirGP 🇧🇭 #F1 pic.twitter.com/X5GXizQlry

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 4, 2020