2020 F1 Bahrain GP Friday practice results
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time on the opening day of Bahrain Grand Prix practice at Sakhir for Mercedes on Friday, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen best of the rest.
In the first practice session, Hamilton set the pace as drivers also got their first chance to sample Pirelli’s 2021 tyres. Mercedes' recently re-crowned world champion was almost half a second faster than teammate Bottas, both setting their best times on Pirelli’s 2020 medium tyres.
Fresh from his podium finish in Turkey, Sergio Perez was third quickest for Racing Point but was almost a second slower than Hamilton managed – and ran the faster soft tyres. Another star of Turkey, Carlos Sainz, was next up for McLaren, just 0.018s slower than Perez.
Italian GP winner Pierre Gasly enjoyed a strong session in fifth place, ahead of the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Alex Albon.
In FP2, there was a major incident when Albon crashed heavily at the final corner, tearing two wheels from his Red Bull after over-correcting a big slide at the final corner on his soft-tyre run, which red-flagged the session. A second red flag was required for a stray dog, which ran on to the track but quickly exited the venue through a gap in the fence.
Verstappen set his fastest time of 1m29.318s on the medium tyre, but this was beaten by Hamilton’s 1m28.971s – 0.347s quicker – on the softs. Bottas was 0.018s slower than Verstappen on softs.
Perez was 0.432 off the pace in fourth, with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo fifth, almost half a second away from the fastest time, with Gasly in sixth.
Last year’s pole-winner, Charles Leclerc, again showed how far from the pace Ferrari has fallen and could only manage the 14th fastest time, 1.4s off the pace.
F1 Turkish Grand Prix Free Practice 1 results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Lewis Hamilton |  | Mercedes | Mercedes | 40 | 1'29.033 | 218.831 | ||
| 2 |  Valtteri Bottas | | Mercedes | Mercedes | 41 | 1'29.482 | 0.449 | 0.449 | 217.733 |
| 3 |  Sergio Perez |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 31 | 1'30.000 | 0.967 | 0.518 | 216.480 |
| 4 |  Carlos Sainz Jr. |  | McLaren | Renault | 31 | 1'30.018 | 0.985 | 0.018 | 216.436 |
| 5 |  Pierre Gasly |  | AlphaTauri | Honda | 34 | 1'30.049 | 1.016 | 0.031 | 216.362 |
| 6 |  Max Verstappen |  | Red Bull | Honda | 18 | 1'30.294 | 1.261 | 0.245 | 215.775 |
| 7 |  Alex Albon |  | Red Bull | Honda | 34 | 1'30.302 | 1.269 | 0.008 | 215.756 |
| 8 | Esteban Ocon |  | Renault | Renault | 28 | 1'30.384 | 1.351 | 0.082 | 215.560 |
| 9 |  Lance Stroll | | Racing Point | Mercedes | 30 | 1'30.426 | 1.393 | 0.042 | 215.460 |
| 10 |  Daniel Ricciardo |  | Renault | Renault | 30 | 1'30.508 | 1.475 | 0.082 | 215.264 |
| 11 |  Charles Leclerc |  | Ferrari | Ferrari | 29 | 1'30.589 | 1.556 | 0.081 | 215.072 |
| 12 |  Sebastian Vettel |  | Ferrari | Ferrari | 24 | 1'30.628 | 1.595 | 0.039 | 214.979 |
| 13 |  Robert Kubica |  | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 24 | 1'30.732 | 1.699 | 0.104 | 214.733 |
| 14 | Romain Grosjean |  | Haas | Ferrari | 28 | 1'30.832 | 1.799 | 0.100 | 214.497 |
| 15 |  Kevin Magnussen |  | Haas | Ferrari | 29 | 1'30.854 | 1.821 | 0.022 | 214.445 |
| 16 |  Antonio Giovinazzi |  | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 27 | 1'30.896 | 1.863 | 0.042 | 214.346 |
| 17 |  Daniil Kvyat |  | AlphaTauri | Honda | 37 | 1'31.020 | 1.987 | 0.124 | 214.054 |
| 18 | Lando Norris | | McLaren | Renault | 27 | 1'31.392 | 2.359 | 0.372 | 213.182 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi |  | Williams | Mercedes | 29 | 1'32.472 | 3.439 | 1.080 | 210.692 |
| 20 |  Roy Nissany | | Williams | Mercedes | 27 | 1'32.801 | 3.768 | 0.329 | 209.946 |
| View full results | |||||||||
F1 Turkish Grand Prix Free Practice 2 results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Gap | Interval | km/h | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton |  | Mercedes | Mercedes | 28 | 1'28.971 | 218.983 | ||
| 2 | Max Verstappen |  | Red Bull | Honda | 34 | 1'29.318 | 0.347 | 0.347 | 218.132 |
| 3 | Valtteri Bottas | | Mercedes | Mercedes | 30 | 1'29.336 | 0.365 | 0.018 | 218.089 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 32 | 1'29.403 | 0.432 | 0.067 | 217.925 |
| 5 | Daniel Ricciardo | | Renault | Renault | 27 | 1'29.462 | 0.491 | 0.059 | 217.781 |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly |  | AlphaTauri | Honda | 36 | 1'29.551 | 0.580 | 0.089 | 217.565 |
| 7 | Lando Norris |  | McLaren | Renault | 30 | 1'29.841 | 0.870 | 0.290 | 216.863 |
| 8 | Lance Stroll |  | Racing Point | Mercedes | 32 | 1'29.871 | 0.900 | 0.030 | 216.790 |
| 9 | Daniil Kvyat | | AlphaTauri | Honda | 34 | 1'29.900 | 0.929 | 0.029 | 216.720 |
| 10 | Alex Albon |  | Red Bull | Honda | 17 | 1'30.014 | 1.043 | 0.114 | 216.446 |
| 11 | Esteban Ocon |  | Renault | Renault | 30 | 1'30.085 | 1.114 | 0.071 | 216.275 |
| 12 | Sebastian Vettel |  | Ferrari | Ferrari | 35 | 1'30.110 | 1.139 | 0.025 | 216.215 |
| 13 | Carlos Sainz Jr. |  | McLaren | Renault | 33 | 1'30.271 | 1.300 | 0.161 | 215.830 |
| 14 | Charles Leclerc | | Ferrari | Ferrari | 30 | 1'30.407 | 1.436 | 0.136 | 215.505 |
| 15 | Antonio Giovinazzi | | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 33 | 1'30.627 | 1.656 | 0.220 | 214.982 |
| 16 | Kevin Magnussen |  | Haas | Ferrari | 27 | 1'30.849 | 1.878 | 0.222 | 214.456 |
| 17 | Kimi Raikkonen |  | Alfa Romeo | Ferrari | 34 | 1'30.928 | 1.957 | 0.079 | 214.270 |
| 18 | Nicholas Latifi |  | Williams | Mercedes | 32 | 1'30.973 | 2.002 | 0.045 | 214.164 |
| 19 | Romain Grosjean |  | Haas | Ferrari | 28 | 1'31.119 | 2.148 | 0.146 | 213.821 |
| 20 | George Russell |  | Williams | Mercedes | 29 | 1'31.636 | 2.665 | 0.517 | 212.615 |
| View full results | |||||||||
F1 Turkish Grand Prix Friday Practice as it happened
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Bahrain GP: Hamilton tops FP2 as Albon shunts heavily
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Albon surprised by lack of grip in practice crash
About this article
| Series | Formula 1 |
| Event | Bahrain GP |
| Sub-event | FP2 |
| Author | Charles Bradley |
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