Hamilton fastest on rainy Thursday morning
Published on 27 February 2025 by Misha van der Kroon
Thursday in Bahrain also starts off relatively cool at 13 degrees, with temperatures expected to rise to around 17 degrees throughout the second day of the three-day pre-season Formula 1 test.
Just minutes into the session, a few raindrops begin to fall from the clouds over Sakhir. It continues to rain lightly, allowing the ten drivers on track to continue running on slicks.
Lewis Hamilton is immediately fast in his Ferrari, alongside George Russell in the Mercedes and Carlos Sainz in the Williams. After the first hour, the rain intensifies, and the grip levels start to decrease and everybody returns to their garages. Esteban Ocon then heads out on intermediates, with Haas being the only team to opt for those tires.
After a while, the track begins to dry, bringing back grip and competitive lap times. Around 2.5 hours into the 4-hour session, Russell clocks the fastest lap with a 1:29.879, but Hamilton soon improves on that with a 1:29.675. This is already a faster time than the times set during the 2024 test days and edges closer to Max Verstappen’s pole position time of 1:29.179.
With half an hour remaining, Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) and Oscar Piastri make light contact in Turn 8. Hulkenberg appeared to move aside to let the McLaren driver pass, but Piastri seemed caught off guard, resulting in minor damage to his front wing.
As usual, teams focus on long runs to complete race simulations while following their own test programs with varying fuel loads and engine modes, meaning the lap times are not very representative. That said, Hamilton improves his fastest time to 1:29.379, finishing the first session on Thursday four-tenths quicker than Russell.
Russell is also the most productive driver of the session, completing 70 laps, followed by Esteban Ocon with 69 laps. At the bottom of the list, with the fewest laps completed today, is Liam Lawson, whose RB21 spends a significant amount of time in the garage due to a technical issue. Fortunately, the New Zealander will have the chance to make up for lost time this afternoon.
