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.