Ferrari locked out the top positions in the second free practice session ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Kimi Raikkonen a hundredth of a second faster than team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
With FP2 the most representative practice session for the Bahrain night race, Ferrari running half a second faster than Mercedes is promising for the Italian team, though Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap was hindered by traffic.
Vettel was the fastest man on the soft compound of tyres, 0.4s ahead of Valtteri Bottas, but it was Raikkonen who had the upper hand when the super-soft tyres were strapped on.
Raikkonen was gifted a completely clear track when he set his fastest lap of the session, a 1m29.817s, but the rest of the field were all sent out at a similar time to set their super-soft laps, causing disruption for some drivers.
Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo both complained about traffic on their laps. Hamilton was held up by Kevin Magnussen in the final sector of his lap, but his first two sector times were already slower than Raikkonen’s before he caught the Haas. He finished fourth fastest, a tenth of a second behind Bottas.
After an electrical problem ruled him out of FP1, Verstappen made the most of the 90 minute FP2 session. He finished fifth fastest, just 0.01s ahead of Ricciardo.
Traffic turned from a hindrance to essential in the second part of the session as teams started their longer runs. A number of teams instructed their drivers to get close to the back of other cars as they collected data about temperature management in the turbulent air.
Raikkonen’s session came to an early end when his wheel came loose just after he left the pits on one of his long runs. A similar problem to what hit the Haas team in the Australian Grand Prix, Raikkonen pulled to the side of the track before the wheel could come off his Ferrari. The incident will be investigated after the session. If the stewards deem the Ferrari had been unsafely released, Raikkonen could be handed a grid penalty.
Nico Hulkenberg picked up best of the rest, ahead of the Honda powered Toro Rosso of Pierre Gasly, with Fernando Alonso and Soffel Vandoorne completing the top 10.
Romain Grosjean finished 11th fastest, followed by Carlos Sainz, and the Force Indias of Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez.
Kevin Magnussen ended the qualifying simulation 15th overall, ahead of Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, Sergey Sirotkin, Marcus Ericsson, and Brendon Hartley.
