Vettel leads closely fought FP2

F1 Grand Prix, GP Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit

While Sebastian Vettel was fastest again after completing the same feat earlier in FP1, the battle was much closer than before. Valtteri Bottas stranded at 0.041s of the Ferrari, with Daniel Ricciardo in the fastest Red bull another 0.025s further down.

Running was also a lot more relevant than earlier in the day, with the session's starting time equal to qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.

Under the setting sun, Kimi Raikkonen ended fourth fastest, enjoying a much more productive session following the technical trouble he hit in first practice. 34 laps and a best of 1:31.478 kept the Finn ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes driver had struggled to set a time on the supersofts. A few aborted attempts and some traffic prevented him from getting closer to Vettel.

Nico Hulkenberg was 6th fastest and completed 37 laps, just like Felipe Massa in 7th.

Max Verstappen was 8th fastest. The Dutchman complained afterwards that he struggled with the balance of his car, and failed to find the necessary rear end grip. When he later ran over the broken T-wing of Valtteri Bottas's Mercedes, the damage on the Red Bull's floor proved considerable enough to halt running.

Other drivers that encountered early issues include Carlos Sainz whose Toro Rosso came to a halt early in the session, surrounded with white smoke as he parked his car alongside the track. Stoffel Vandoorne's McLaren also didn't want to cooperate a lot, as even after an engine change following trouble in FP1, the Belgian only managed 8 laps before returning to the pits with more problems.