F1 | Sakhir GP | Russell: "Good First Day In The W11"
The promising start to his Mercedes debut at the Sakhir Grand Prix was continued by George Russell, who led his second straight session in Free Practice 2 on Friday.
A perfectly clean lap around the tight 3.5km Bahrain International Circuit Outer Track, which is only 0.2km longer than Monaco is a tough track for any driver. But, for Russell who in FP1, led the time sheets with a lap of 54.713s after the qualifying simulations were done, about two-tenths slower than he managed in the weekend's opening session.
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Russell says, "It was a good first day in the W11 but there's definitely work to be done. The new track layout is very different to the usual layout here and it's not an easy track to say the least. It's going to be very tight in qualifying and we can probably expect a dramatic race."
To add, "It's been good to be working with the team today and I'm learning a lot every single lap I'm in the car. I think my lap times are a bit deceiving at the moment and not the true representation of the pace. I struggled on the high fuel runs in FP2 and ultimately that's going to be key on Sunday."
Verstappen was 0.128s further back behind Russell, with both the Dutchman and his Red Bull teammate Alex Albon in fifth position complaining of understeering on their RB16s.
Russell comments, "The Red Bulls were quick on the long runs and Valtteri was quickest in FP2 but had his lap time deleted. It's going to be close, so we'll get our heads down tonight. There's still a lot of work to do to get comfortable in the car and with the set-up. But it's been an encouraging first day and I'm excited to be back in W11 tomorrow. "
It was an exciting opening gambit for Geroge Russell's Mercedes. But with Red Bull looking similar to the Silver Arrows. This can give a sense of how frentic qualifying might be in Bahrain it's still very much everything to play for.
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