Oscar Piastri led teammate Lando Norris to the top two spots in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix in an ominous display of performance from McLaren.
Both leading drivers needed only one attempt on one set of fresh soft tires to move comfortably to the top of the table. Norris was first over the line to show the team’s hand, but Piastri set purple splits in sectors 2 and 3 to immediately beat it. The Australian set the benchmark at 1m30.505s, a time 0.154s quicker than the sister car.
George Russell was best of the rest, but his Mercedes was a long way off the pace, lapping 0.527s slower than Piastri around the well-understood Bahrain International Circuit, the venue having been used for preseason testing in late February.
Charles Leclerc put Ferrari only fractionally further back, his best effort only 0.013s down on Russell and 0.54s off the leading McLaren, the Monegasque putting his new floor through its paces.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli completed the top 10 for Mercedes, the rookie lapping 0.722s off the pace.
It was a far more representative session that FP1, which had been run in blazing late-afternoon desert sunshine. With the sun having set in time for FP2, the track temperature was fully 25 degrees F cooler, clocking in at 93 degrees, and had a commensurately positive effect on the handling and tire grip.
Qualifying and the race will take place at a similar time to FP2, which is the only night-time practice session of the weekend — making it a crucial insight into the weekend form guide.
Isack Hadjar was an impressive sixth for Racing Bulls on the medium tire rather than the soft. The Frenchman was 0.733s off the pace but a remarkable 0.092s and one place quicker than Max Verstappen at the senior Red Bull Racing team.
Verstappen’s RB21 looked less sweetly balanced on his fast lap than it had in Japan, and the Dutchman complained of brake problems into the last corner throughout the session.
Lewis Hamilton was eighth in the second Ferrari, the Briton 1.071s off the pace after a lap that took him off the road exiting the final two corners anyway. He ended his session radioing his team about bodywork issues on his upgraded car.
Oliver Bearman was ninth for Haas ahead of Carlos Sainz, who completed the top 10 for Williams.
Alex Albon followed teammate Sainz closely in 11th ahead of Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan down to 14th.
Fernando Alonso was 15th after a bizarre start to the hour-long session that had him reporting a switching-off steering wheel to the team.
Onboard footage then showed alarmingly Alonso’s steering wheel come off the steering column after he hit the brakes for Turn 14 at the end of the long back straight, though it was unclear if that was part of the issue or if Alonso was attempting to restart the steering wheel software by manually disconnecting it. Whatever the case, the Spaniard had to return to pit lane and lost significant running to subsequent repairs.
Esteban Ocon was 16th for Haas ahead of Pierre Gasly and the out-of-position Yuki Tsunoda, who was a worrying 0.694s slower than teammate Verstappen and a total of 1.519s off the pace after complaining of “insane” front locking.
The Japanese driver’s lap showed no obvious mistakes, and summing his best sector times produces a similarly yawning deficit, though a single run on fresh soft tires might have played a factor in him being unable to access the red-walled rubber’s peak grip.
Lance Stroll was 19th ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who completed the order for Sauber.
