McLaren dominate Bahrain Grand Prix practice as Verstappen struggles

Oscar Piastri topped the times as McLaren dominated second practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday with Max Verstappen struggling to make an impact in his Red Bull.

Piastri posted a quickest lap of 1min 30.505s with his teammate Lando Norris only a tenth of a second adrift.

The chasing pack was led by the Mercedes of George Russell albeit over five tenths of a second back in an ominous display of force by McLaren at a track where the Bahraini-backed team have yet to win in 21 visits.

Verstappen, who moved to within one point of championship leader Norris after his win in Japan last weekend, was given plenty of food for thought ahead of this fourth race of the season as he trailed in seventh, close to one second back.

To add insult to injury immediately in front of the four-time world champion were two rookies - Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and RB’s Isack Hadjar, who both did brilliantly to finish fifth and sixth.

Red Bull’s plight was not helped by the sight of Yuki Tsunoda coming in 18th, six places behind RB’s Liam Lawson, the driver he replaced at Red Bull last time out.

Second practice at the Bahrain International Circuit got underway as the sun set to make the session more meaningful than opening practice held in the searing mid-afternoon heat.

With the floodlights illuminating the track to give like-for-like conditions with Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race it placed extra importance on the 60 minutes evening run out.

Verstappen, Russell and Charles Leclerc were among six established drivers to lend their cars to rookies to gain valuable experience in FP1 as per the sporting guidelines.

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton, in the upgraded Ferrari kitted out with a new floor panel and a record five-time winner in Bahrain, put his foot down early to lead the timesheets.

Verstappen got his weekend up and running but was soon grumbling on the team radio: “The ride is very bad, the car is jumping a lot.”

Things were worse over with Fernando Alonso, who told his Aston Martin engineer: “Change the steering wheel” as the veteran Spaniard headed back to the pits, the wheel literally coming off in his hands.

A human wall of Aston mechanics blocked any inquisitive competitors as they frantically worked to resolve the unusual and worrying issue.

Agence France-Presse