#BahrainGP FP2: @alo_oficial fastest, ahead of @RedBullRacing duo. #F1

Alonso Bahrain GP FP2 – Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was fastest in the evening FP2 session at the Bahrain GP ahead of Red Bull Racing pairing Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez who were second and third respectively.

 

 

Alonso posted the time-topping benchmark of a 1:30.907 with the C3 red side-walled compounds on his qualifying simulation run and was 0.169 seconds quicker than reigning world champion Verstappen with Perez a further 0.171 seconds off the Spaniard in third.

 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc placed fourth in the classification during a session where the top 13 drivers finished with one second of each other, the Mercedes pairing were a bit down the pack and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg put in an impressive effort.

 

As the temperatures dropped five degrees from 22C in the evening under the floodlights, several teams immediately emerged on the C3 softs they had avoided using in the earlier FP1 session, which was much warmer.

 

This included Alpine with Esteban Ocon, using the softs to set a 1:31.415, which relegated Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who posted the opening benchmark of a 1:33.624 on the medium rubber a few moments earlier.

 

The Ferrari duo flew through to close the opening five minutes of the hour-long session with their initial flying laps on the softs – Carlos Sainz jumping into P1 on a 1:31.843 before team-mate Leclerc moved ahead after gaining time during the second half of his flyer.

 

Leclerc’s effort stood as the session’s best for 20 minutes, with proceedings featuring some very close calls as FP1 time-topper Perez had to jink to the left and avoid the former’s rear when coming across the SF-23 at the downhill turn eight hairpin, whilst McLaren’s Oscar Piastri suffered a couple of lock-ups into turn one.

 

The first came when Piastri went wheel-to-wheel with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda down the main-straight before they came across a slow-moving AMR23 of Stroll ahead of the turn one hairpin and in the middle of the track. The McLaren made a late move to the right but snatching his right front brake as he done so.

 

A few moments later, Piastri went off at the same spot having caught that same flat spot on his front-right tyre, which he endured in his initial incident, which resulted in the McLaren calling him in to put on a fresh set of rubber.

 

The second running of qualifying simulations took place on 25th-minute mark, with Sainz getting closer to Ferrari team-mate Leclerc’s leading effort, but failed to better it before Stroll emerged for the first time on the softs.

 

He jumped ahead of the Ferrari pairing setting a 1:31.450 before being demoted a few moments later by Haas’s Hulkenberg, who posted a 1:31.376.

 

This only lasted as the benchmark briefly as Perez moved into top spot with Red Bull’s initial flyers on the softs, the Mexican set a 1:31.078, which Leclerc could not match, his second soft flying tour coming in 0.289 seconds off of Perez.

 

Both were relegated back, first by Alonso, who posted the session’s best effort of a 1:30.907 and following him came reigning champion Verstappen. who was one of the last of the leaders to run the softs having complained that his RB19 racer “was jumping around a lot more than in testing” also at the Bahrain International Circuit a week ago.

 

He beat team-mate Perez and Leclerc, but could not oust Alonso, with the Dutchman only setting a purple in sector two and three and wound up 0.169 off of the Spaniard’s best time.

 

The field then returned to the pits before completing the final third of FP2 with the traditional long race-run data gathering.

 

This featured Alonso suffering a big lock-up at turn nine and ten’s double-left complex at the beginning of his race simulation run, whilst his team-mate Stroll revealed he could not follow Aston Martin’s advice to compromise the opening corner exit to have a better, wider line through the second turn due to his injured wrist.

 

Stroll was seen taking his left-hand off his AMR23’s steering wheel as he braked for turn one, and turning in with that hand’s palm pushing the wheel instead of simply turning it in normal fashion.

 

Behind the top four at the end of the session, came Hulkenberg in the VF-23 rounding out the top five with Stroll sixth, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly seventh and Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton eighth, as the latter was 0.636 seconds adrift of his session-leading former McLaren team-mate.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu completed the top ten in ninth and 10th respectively.

 

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon finished FP2 outside the top ten in 11th place and ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who took 12th and Mercedes’ George Russell who was 13th.

 

Ferrari’s Sainz second flying lap on the softs saw him wound up 14th and in-front of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who took 15th and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who placed 16th.

 

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant ended the day 17th and at the rear respectively as Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries split the pairing in 18th and 19th place.

 

With the session over, the stewards are now currently investigating the pit-lane incident, which took place halfway through where Norris had to slam on the brakes in response to AlphaTauri’s de Vries being released into his path.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/practice-2.html

 

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#BahrainGP FP1: @SChecoPerez tops time-sheets ahead of @alo_oficial. #F1

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