Mercedes lead P2 at Bahrain GP with Hamilton in front

Mercedes, currently in front of McLaren by 25 points in the championship standings after the first two rounds, showed their supremacy again, leading the whole session using soft tires as well as the medium compound.

Hamilton was more than 1 second faster than any driver of other teams with a time of 1:34.325. Rosberg set time 0.365 seconds slower.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso was persistent keeping his F14T third the whole practice session. His teammate Raikkonen wasn't able to get on pace under a new floodlight lit version of the Sakhir race track and only achieved a lap of 1:36.366 which secured 14th on the timesheet.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W05

Photo by: XPB Images

The temperature was 12 degrees lower than it was in the end of FP1. It looked like the turn 10 was the Achilles' heel for all drivers as almost each saw a lockup or a big slide.

Daniil Kvyat had troubled downshift along with Sebastian Vettel, that looked like a common issue for Renault-powered cars, causing both to leave the track for the fix.

In P2 the situation was the same as P1, first rows - two Mercedes' then Alonso.

McLaren drivers after using a soft tire improved their times but that was enough only to claim 6th place for Jensen Button and 9th for Kevin Magnussen.

After fixing the gearbox, Vettel immediately posted 4th best time for the session, but Daniel Ricciardo moved him and Alonso one position lower posting 3rd best, half a second slower then session leader Hamilton.

Lotus continued to show progress with Romain Grosjean, who got on podium here last year, showing much better performance during this session, but later he suffered an engine issue (misfire) that forced the team to lose time in the session.

After half an hour drivers began to use soft tires and a lap time was significantly cut by more than 1.5 second.

Pastor Maldonado had a braking mistake, and almost set his E22 airborne hitting the curb. The Lotus driver posted the 17th best time, while his teammate, Grosjean, was less lucky and ended the session in P18.

With a half hour of the session remaining, two Mercedeses remain on the first two positions and Alonso on 3rd more than a second slower than Hamilton. The situation shows that Mercedes W05 is very fast on soft tires comparing to others. Red Bull drivers caught up showing 4th and 7th best laps for Ricciardo and Vettel. Ricciardo despite all his previous troubles again proved that he was the right choice for replacing Webber.

Max Chilton (Marussia) had a serious failure of rear diff, spinning his car of the track ending in P20.

In the end of the session after having his car tuned, Felipe Massa posted 5th best lap time, putting a little sign of a smile on a grim Williams team faces. Valtteri Bottas after a late try ended the session in 11th.