Mixed first day of Bahrain Grand Prix

Published on 17 April 2015 by Stefan Meens

Braking issues prevented Max Verstappen from setting a fast time during the second free practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix. Max' quickest lap, a 1:36.917, resulted in P16 at the end of the Friday. At the front, Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton occupied first and second with the German lapping the Sakhir based circuit a tenth quicker.

“It was a bit of an up-and-down day”, explained Max after free practice 2. “I think the first practice in general was quite alright and I used it to get used to the track and didn’t take too many risks. Everything felt good and I like the track, so that’s important.”

However, Max is not able to cling on the positive vibe of FP1. Early on in the second 90-minute session, the rookie tells his race engineer Xevi Pujolar that he notices a lack of power. The following lap time, 22 seconds of Hamilton's quickest lap so far, confirms Max is not happy with the STR10.

Thirty minutes into the session, Max heads out on track again. “We put on a new set of brakes at the start of the second session but the car pulled to right. I locked up which which meant that set of mediums was a write-off. Obviously all of this didn’t contribute to my confidence in the car.”

After his lock-up, Max only has a set of the soft Pirellis left. In order to prevent the risk of flat spotting his remaining compound, Max takes it easy in the remainder of the session. “Not being very happy with the set of brakes, during FP2 we decided to change it and luckily it all felt better towards the end of the session, but I carried on taking it easy. It was a bit of a scrappy practice but now we have all night to prepare for tomorrow and that’s what we’ll do.”

At front it is the usual suspects with the Ferraris eager to disturb Mercedes' dominance. Initially Kimi Raikkonen tops the timing sheets after a quick lap on the soft Pirellis. However both Hamilton and Rosberg restore the natural order by demoting the Finn the third. Raikkonen ends FP2 a position ahead of his team mate Sebastian Vettel. The German causes a red flag near the end of the session after a collision with Sergio Perez, due to a braking issue on the Ferrari.

Further back, both Manor Marussias set a time within the 107% rule. It is therefore likely we will see twenty cars line up for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.

Bahrain Grand Prix – Bahrain International Circuit – Friday 17 April

 FREE PRACTICE 2
 P No Driver 		Team 			Time     Gap   Laps 
 1  6 Nico Rosberg 	Mercedes 		1:34.647       31 
 2 44 Lewis Hamilton 	Mercedes 		1:34.762 0.115 33 
 3  7 Kimi Raikkonen 	Ferrari 		1:35.174 0.527 30 
 4  5 Sebastian Vettel 	Ferrari 		1:35.277 0.630 26 
 5 77 Valtteri Bottas 	Williams 		1:35.280 0.633 36 
 6  3 Daniel Ricciardo 	Red Bull Racing 	1:35.449 0.802 27 
 7 13 Pastor Maldonado 	Lotus 			1:35.474 0.827 34 
 8 12 Felipe Nasr 	Sauber 			1:35.793 1.146 27 
 9 26 Daniil Kvyat 	Red Bull Racing 	1:35.883 1.236 23 
10 19 Felipe Massa 	Williams 		1:35.884 1.237 35 
11  9 Marcus Ericsson 	Sauber 			1:36.148 1.501 34 
12 14 Fernando Alonso 	McLaren 		1:36.191 1.544 22 
13  8 Romain Grosjean 	Lotus 			1:36.334 1.687 31 
14 55 Carlos Sainz 	Toro Rosso 		1:36.471 1.824 32 
15 27 Nico Hulkenberg 	Force India 		1:36.805 2.158 30 
16 33 Max Verstappen 	Toro Rosso 		1:36.917 2.270 26 
17 11 Sergio Perez 	Force India 		1:37.062 2.415 33 
18 28 Will Stevens 	Marussia 		1:39.131 4.484 21 
19 22 Jenson Button 	McLaren 		1:39.209 4.562 15 
20 98 Roberto Merhi 	Marussia 		1:40.592 5.945 26

Via Twitter and Facebook we'll keep you updated throughout the weekend followed by a full report on Verstappen.nl at the end of the day’s action. You can find the schedule for the Bahrain Grand Prix here. Don't forget to check out the weekend’s photo album.