Bahrain GP 2015

APRIL 17, 2015

Practice 2 Report - Shadows

Nico Rosberg
© Active Pictures

 

The lights came on and the shadows appeared as Free Practice 2 for the Bahrain Grand Prix headed into the night. When it was over, Mercedes drivers Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton had overshadowed Ferrari drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.

The ambient temperature at the start of the 90-minute session was 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Centigrade) and the track temperature was 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Centigrade).

The line-up for the weekend was: Mercedes - Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Red Bull Renault - Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. Williams Mercedes - Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas. Ferrari - Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren Honda - Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Force India Mercedes - Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Toro Rosso Renault - Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. Lotus Mercedes - Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. Marussia Ferrari - Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi. Sauber - Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

Massa was out first and clocked a 1:38.541. Bottas beat that with a 1:38.540.

7 minutes into the session, Raikkonen went ahead with a 1:37.537.

10 minutes into the session, Vettel sliced a chunk of time off his teammate's lap when he set a 1:37.088. Then Hamilton beat that with a 1:36.795.

14 minutes into the session, Vettel improved to a 1:36.895, and Nasr moved up to third.

16 minutes into the session, Button's McLaren stopped at Turn 11.

20 minutes into the session, Rosberg was now third, Nasr fourth, Raikkonen fifth, Bottas sixth and Massa seventh. Ricciardo and Kvyat had yet to go out. Then Kvyat headed for the track. Ricciardo joined him five minutes later.

26 minutes into the session, Raikkonen did a run on the soft Pirelli tires and jumped to the front with a 1:35.512.

29 minutes into the session, Hulkenberg had a go on the softs and went from 15th to third.

Then Vettel went into second with a 1:35.277 while Raikkonen improved to a 1:35.174.

36 minutes into the session, Hamilton clocked a 1:34.762 on the softs, and Rosberg beat that with a 1:34.647.

39 minutes into the session, the order was Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Nasr and Ericsson.

42 minutes into the session, Grosjean slid off the track at Turn 1 and continued.

With 44 minutes remaining in the session, Bottas, on the soft tires, was fifth quickest.

With 35 minutes remaining in the session, the top 10 were: Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Bottas, Ricciardo, Maldonado, Nasr, Kvyat and Massa.

With 33 minutes remaining in the session, Button was back on track in his repaired McLaren.

With 25 minutes remaining in the session, every driver except Kvyat was on the track doing long runs on the soft and medium tyres.

With 23 minutes remaining in the session, everybody but Button was out there lapping. Button now had 5 laps completed in FP2.

With 15 minutes remaining in the session, all the drivers were in action.

With 12 minutes remaining in the session, Alonso did some laps the green flow-vis paint on his McLaren.

With 10 minutes remaining in the session, Vettel has a brake failure and then Perez shredded the front wing of the Ferrari. The session was red flagged so that the debris could be cleaned up.

With 7 minutes remaining, the session was restarted.

The top 10 remained unchanged: Rosberg, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Vettel, Bottas, Ricciardo, Maldonado, Nasr, Kvyat and Massa.