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Hamilton shines brightest under lights in second F1 practice of F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

Hamilton shines brightest under lights in second F1 practice of F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024

  • Seven-time world champion clocks overall best time of the day in cool evening conditions at BIC
  • India’s Kush Maini grabs pole for season-opening feature race in Formula 2
  • Sweden’s Dino Beganovic powers to Formula 3 feature race pole
  • Harry King tops timesheet in second practice of Porsche Carrera Cup ME

Lewis Hamilton was quickest this evening under lights in the second Formula 1 practice of the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024.

The seven-time world champion led Mercedes teammate George Russell to the top of the timesheet in the hour-long session, held in cool evening conditions as the opening day of the Kingdom’s 20th anniversary F1 weekend wrapped up at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), “The Home of Motorsport in the Middle East”.

Hamilton clocked a fastest lap of one minute 30.374 seconds while completing 25 laps of running. His best was nearly two-and-a-half clicks quicker than the pace-setting time of Daniel Ricciardo of RB in the first practice held earlier in the day.

Russell was 0.206 seconds behind, while Fernando Alonso followed in third for Aston Martin 0.286s back. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fourth on the classification 0.395s adrift, and Oscar Piastri put McLaren in fifth 0.410s from the leader.

Reigning drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen was sixth for Red Bull 0.477s slower than Hamilton’s top mark, while Nico Hulkenberg had a solid session for Haas to rank seventh 0.510s adrift.

Lance Stroll was eighth in the other Aston Martin 0.517s from first place, while Charles Leclerc (0.739s) for Ferrari and Sergio Perez (+0.741s) of Red Bull completed the top 10.

Eleventh through 20th on the timesheet were Alexander Albon of Williams, Ricciardo, Logan Sargeant of Williams, Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Yuki Tsunoda of RB, Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Valtteri Bottas of Kick Sauber, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Zhou Guanyu of Kick Sauber, and Lando Norris of McLaren.

The F1 field returns for a third practice session on Friday (Editor’s note: 1 March) at 1.15pm, which will be followed by the first qualifying of the F1 season at 7pm.

Maini grabs pole for season-opening F2 feature

India’s Kush Maini grabbed the first feature race pole of the 2024 FIA Formula 2 Championship today, being held in support of the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2024.

Maini clocked a fastest lap of 1:41.696 as he finished first in F2 qualifying. His Invicta Racing teammate Gabriel Bortoleto followed on the timesheet 0.219 seconds behind and will start alongside Maini on the front row, while qualified behind them in third and fourth, respectively, were Isack Hadjar (+0.242s) of Campos Racing and Zane Maloney (+0.286s) of Rodin Motorsport.

Dennis Hauger (+0.294s) of MP Motorsport took fifth on the grid, while set to start beside him in Saturday’s feature is Ritomo Miyata (+0.307s) in the other Rodin car. Zak O’Sullivan (+0.318s) and Enzo Fittipaldi (+0.374s) completed the top eight in qualifying.

After finishing 10th in the session, Taylor Barnard of PHM AIX Racing will start Friday’s F2 sprint race in first place. This is per F2’s unique qualifying rules.

Beganovic claims F3 feature pole for Prema

Dino Beganovic powered defending champions Prema Racing to the first feature race pole position of the 2024 FIA Formula 3 Championship today.

The Swede set a fastest lap of 1:46.431 to top qualifying. His time earned him the leading grid spot for Saturday’s feature event.

Beganovic finished 0.167 seconds ahead of Luke Browning of Hitech Pulse-Eight, while Beganovic’s Prema teammate Gabriele Mini (+0.170s) will start from row two alongside Sami Meguetounif (+0.364s) of Trident.

The two other Trident cars of Santiago Ramos (+0.367s) and Leonardo Fornaroli (+0.374s) qualified on row three, while MP Motorsport’s Tim Tramnitz (+0.397s) and ART Grand Prix’s Christian Mansell (+0.412s) are to start from row four.

The leading 10 from F3’s 30-car grid is completed by Arvid Lindblad (+0.442s) of Prema and Max Esterson (+0.503s) of Jenzer Motorsport.

Meanwhile, by finishing 12th in qualifying, Laurens Van Hoepen of ART Grand Prix secured pole for Friday’s F3 sprint race. This is per F3’s unique qualifying format for starting grids.

Harry King tops times in Porsche Carrera Cup second practice

Harry King clocked the fastest lap in the second practice session of the 2023/2024 Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East’s fifth round, being held in support of the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.

The Briton had a time of two minutes 01.504 seconds to top the session’s timesheet. Dutchman Robert De Haan followed with a best lap of 2:01.811, while Colin Boenighausen of Germany finished third in 2:01.906.

The top three are all competing in the series’ Pro class.

In the ProAm category, Khaled Alahmadi of Saudi Arabia was the leader with a best lap of 2:02.668, while homegrown talent Shaikh Jaber bin Ali Al Khalifa of Team Bahrain was the top man amongst the Am competitors, setting a quickest mark of 2:05.246.

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