At the start of the season, a traditional racing team achieved strong times. World champion Max Verstappen, on the other hand, is not having a good first few sessions.
Lewis Hamilton set the best time of the day in the second free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion clearly set the fastest lap in the Sakhir desert.
Hamilton’s British compatriot and teammate George Russell confirmed the strong impression of the new Mercedes in second place in the one-hour session.
| placement | Driver, teamdriver | team | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  Lewis HamiltonMercedes | Mercedes | 25 |
| 2. |  George RussellMercedes | Mercedes | 23 |
| 3. |  Fernando AlonsoAston Martin | Aston Martin | 22 |
| 4. |  Carlos SainzFerrari | Ferrari | 25 |
| 5. |  Oscar PiastriMcLaren | McLaren | 27 |
Three-time world champion and defending champion Max Verstappen also stumbled with the new Red Bull at qualifying and race time. The 26-year-old Dutchman had to admit defeat again, at least in the fight for the best time on one lap. As in the first session, the three-time champion in the Red Bull didn’t get past sixth place. And just like in the afternoon, Verstappen complained and cursed about the gearshift of the new RB20.
Hülkenberg with a respectable performance
The two-time world champion Fernando Alonso came third in an Aston Martin. The 42-year-old was only eight hundredths of a second slower than Russell. Hamilton was almost three tenths of a second away. Fourth place went to Carlos Sainz, who will have to vacate his cockpit at Ferrari for Hamilton after this season. Nico Hülkenberg, once again the only regular German driver this year, finished seventh in the Haas.
How meaningful the results are remains to be seen. This Friday (from 5 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online) the qualification takes place on the course in the desert of Sakhir, the race takes place on Saturday (from 4 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online). The Grand Prix will also start a week later in Saudi Arabia on Saturday. The reason for this is the upcoming Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, which begins on March 10th. There must be a week between races.
The start on Thursday was overshadowed by new reports about Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. In an anonymous email, “evidence” intended to incriminate the Briton was sent to F1 officials and journalists (read more about this here). It was only on Wednesday that the Austrian racing team acquitted its long-time creator of publicly vague allegations of misconduct.