WEC 8 Hours of Bahrain
FIA World Endurance Championship
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View MoreVerstappen edges Leclerc under lights to top F1’s second practice timesheet at Bahrain GP 2022
Verstappen edges Leclerc under lights to top F1’s second practice timesheet at Bahrain GP 2022
- Doohan powers to F2 Feature pole, Drugovich to start Sprint in P1
- Colapinto captures F3 pole for Feature, O’Sullivan in front for Sprint
- Vermeulen goes quickest in second Porsche Sprint Challenge practice
- Massive turnout for Afrojack, Don Diablo live performances
Max Verstappen edged Charles Leclerc to the top of the second Formula 1 practice timesheet this evening in the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022 at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir.
The Red Bull Racing driver clocked a fastest lap of one minute 31.936 seconds under BIC’s bright floodlights.
Verstappen’s mark was also the quickest overall for the day, as the reigning drivers’ world champion posted 20 laps around BIC’s 5.412-kilometre track in the one-hour session.
Verstappen narrowly beat out Charles Leclerc of Ferrari by a mere 0.087 seconds. Leclerc’s best lap was 1:32.023. Carlos Sainz was third-quickest in the other Ferrari challenger 0.584s off the pace, with a best lap of 1:32.520.
George Russell (1:32.529) followed in fourth for Mercedes while Fernando Alonso (1:32.877) came fifth for Alpine.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas made up for not clocking a time in the day’s opening practice by going sixth with a best lap of 1:32.951, while Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez came seventh in 1:32.958.
Mick Schumacher finished eighth for Haas in 1:33.085, Lewis Hamilton was ninth for Mercedes in 1:33.144, and Kevin Magnussen made it two Haas cars in the top 10 with a best lap of 1:33.183.
The rest of the classification from 11th to 20th were Lando Norris of McLaren, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, first practice pace-setter Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, Guanyu Zhou of Alfa Romeo, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg in the Aston Martins, Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren, and the Williams pair of Nicholas Latifi and Alexander Albon.
The second practice featured representative conditions for qualifying, as both are being held in the evening in cooler condition. F1’s third practice on Saturday will once again be under the afternoon sun, starting at 3pm, before qualifying gets underway at 6pm.
Doohan grabs F2 Feature Race pole
Jack Doohan of Virtuosi Racing captured pole position this evening for the season-opening Feature Race of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 Championship, being held in support of this weekend’s Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Doohan, from Australia, posted a fastest lap time of 1:40.542 in qualifying this evening, held under lights.
The Feature Race is set to be held on Sunday with a 1.40pm start.
Felipe Drugovich, who finished qualifying in 10th, will start Saturday’s Sprint Race on pole following F2’s reverse grid rule. The Sprint is scheduled to flag off at 7.40pm.
In today’s qualifying, Doohan narrowly beat out Theo Pourchaire of ART Grand Prix, who had a best lap time of 1:40.683.
Juri Vips of Hitech Grand Prix was third on the timesheet in 1:40.755, while Logan Sargeant of Carlin, Ralph Boschung of Campos Racing and Liam Lawson in the second Carlin car completed the top six.
Jehan Daruvala of Prema Racing and Jake Hughes of Van Amersfoort Racing rounded out the top eight from the 22 competing drivers.
Colapinto captures F3 pole for Feature, O’Sullivan in front for Sprint
Franco Colapinto powered to claim the first pole position of the 2022 season in the FIA Formula 3 Championship today as part of the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.
The Van Amersfoort Racing driver from Argentina had a best lap time of one minute 46.249 seconds in qualifying.
Colapinto will be starting the weekend’s 23-lap Feature Race on Sunday from the front. He won the leading grid position by a mere 0.065 seconds ahead of Czech Roman Stanek of Trident, who had earlier set the pace in practice.
India’s Kush Maini competing for MP Motorsport qualified a close third 0.073s behind.
The ART Grand Prix trio of Gregoire Saucy, Victor Martins and Juan Manuel Correa will start in fourth through sixth position, while completing the first 10 on the grid for Sunday’s feature are Zane Maloney of Trident, Alexander Smolyar of MP Motorsport, Isack Hadjar of Hitech Grand Prix and David Vidales of Campos Racing.
Oliver Bearman of Prema Racing will start 11th and Zak O’Sullivan of Carlin 12th from the grid of 30. As per F3 rules, O’Sullivan will be on pole for Saturday’s 20-lap Sprint Race, which is scheduled for a 12.45pm start.
Vermeulen goes quickest in second Porsche Sprint Challenge practice
Thierry Vermeulen posted the fastest time of the second practice in the season’s final round of the 2021/2022 Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East.
The Dutch driver had a best mark of 2:01.487 in the day’s evening runs, where he completed 17 laps in all.
German Richard Wagner followed on the timesheet just 0.119 seconds off the pace with a best lap of 2:01.606, while Morris Schuring, also from the Netherlands, followed up his top time from the first practice by going third with a best mark of 2:01.720.
Fahad Algosaibi of Saudi Arabia finished fourth, Dutch driver Daan Van Kuijk came fifth, Bandar Alesayi of Saudi was sixth, James Dorlin from Great Britain seventh and Ghislain Cordeel from Belgium was eighth.
The Porsche Sprint Challenge Middle East will now hold its qualifying session at 11.35pm on Saturday, which will set the grid for the weekend’s first race later that afternoon at 4.30pm.
Massive turnout for Afrojack, Don Diablo live performances
A massive crowd turned up for the back-to-back live performances at Bahrain International Circuit this evening of superstar DJs Afrojack and Don Diablo.
All those with tickets to the Grand Prix were able to enjoy the spectacular shows at no extra cost.
Afrojack and Don Diablo played some of their biggest hits, much to the delight of their fans in attendance.