2018 F1 Round 2 Bahrain GP FP2 — Räikkönen edges Vettel in Ferrari one-two

Friday’s second practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix moved into the night, bringing track temperatures closer to those expected for qualifying and the race. Teams began comparing single-lap pace on soft tyres and longer runs. FP2 therefore generally offered a more representative view of the weekend’s competitive picture than the daytime opening session, although fuel loads and tyre programmes still influenced the results.

Kimi Räikkönen set the fastest time with a 1:29.817, just 0.011 seconds ahead of team-mate Sebastian Vettel. Ferrari occupied the top two places with almost identical lap times. The SF71H showed single-lap speed under the lights, while the small margin between its drivers provided little basis for judging which would have the advantage on Saturday.

Mercedes followed, with Valtteri Bottas third, 0.563 seconds behind, and Lewis Hamilton fourth, 0.655 seconds off the lead. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were fifth and sixth. The leading three teams filled the top six, with the gaps ranging from Ferrari’s slender internal margin to roughly nine-tenths of a second for Red Bull.

Among the midfield runners, Nico Hülkenberg was seventh and Pierre Gasly eighth, followed by Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne in ninth and tenth. Gasly remained inside the top ten as Toro Rosso again showed single-lap competitiveness after FP1. Both McLarens also reached the top ten.

The Haas drivers were eleventh and fifteenth, while Renault’s Carlos Sainz took twelfth. Force India, Sauber and Williams drivers were mainly in the second half of the order. Räikkönen’s advantage at the top was small, while tyre choices and single-lap programmes continued to differ considerably across the midfield.

Räikkönen completed 32 laps and Vettel 37, while Bottas and Hamilton ran 31 and 32 respectively. Those totals gave teams samples of longer running at night. The order on the timesheets alone could not establish consistency on race tyres, with long-run average pace requiring a separate comparison.

Red Bull had led Friday’s opening session through Ricciardo, before Ferrari took the top two places in the night-time FP2 session. Mercedes was more than half a second behind in FP2 and still had the opportunity to close the gap through setup changes and tyre management. The three leading teams’ qualifying order would be tested again after Saturday’s short practice session.

The table below lists all 20 drivers in F1’s official FP2 results. The 0.011-second gap between Räikkönen and Vettel was the session’s central feature, with Bottas and Hamilton third and fourth. Gasly’s eighth place and Alonso’s ninth showed that midfield teams also had the opportunity to compete for top-ten positions under the lights.