Bahrain 2010: Free Practice Two

Friday’s running for the Bahrain Grand Prix is now complete, all drivers having completed both free practice sessions at the Sakhir circuit. During the 90 minute afternoon session, drivers continued to acclimatise themselves to the new cars and also to the altered layout of the Bahrain International Circuit, this year utilising the extended loop in the first half of the lap. Maximising their lap time after lunch was Nico Rosberg, who managed the fastest tour of the track and completed 23 laps.

Returning world champion Michael Schumacher underlined the performance of the Mercedes MGP-W01 by completing the third fastest lap of the afternoon, sandwiching McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton in P2. Jenson Button continued the theme by going fourth fastest in the MP4-25. Nico Hulkenberg once again impressed with a fine performance to finish in P5, again beating his much more experienced team mate Rubens Barrichello, who could only manage P13. Barrichello was just under a second off Hulkenberg’s pace, while the top four drivers were separated by just over 0.6s.

Other notable positions from the second free practice session were the Ferraris, Felipe Massa finishing his day in P7 and Fernando Alonso slipping down to P9, the red cars sandwiching rookie Vitaly Petrov in P8. Both Saubers ran well, Pedro De La Rosa going tenth quickest closely followed by team mate Kamui Kobayashi in P11, the pair separated by 0.1s.

Red Bull Racing endured problems during the afternoon, and although Sebastian Vettel managed to go P5, he did take a couple of excursions over the run-off areas. Mark Webber fared less well and could only complete 12 laps due to a drive shaft problem on his RB6. Sister team Scuderia Toro Rosso also had their fair share of problems, with Sebastien Buemi spending the afternoon in the garage with a suspected gearbox problem and Jaime Alguersuari narrowly missing the armco barrier as he gracefully spun on the bumpy section at the top of the course.

Of the new teams, Lotus lead with Heikki Kovalainen in P18 and Jarno Trulli in P19, the pair followed by Virgin Racing in P20 and P21, Timo Glock out-performing his rookie team mate Lucas Di Grassi. Bruno Senna finally got Hispania’s campaign underway by completing 17 laps, although the Brazilian driver did stop on-track at the very end of the session, his rear-right wheel coming loose and the nut flying off as Senna braked. Unfortunately, Karun Chandhok had to once again sit in his garage and look at the proceedings on television.

	Bahrain 2010 Free Practice Two	Lap Time Fastest Time Set	Laps Set Number Laps Completed
1.	Nico Rosberg Mercedes	1m55.409s	23 Laps
2.	Lewis Hamilton McLaren	1m55.854s	22 Laps
3.	Michael Schumacher Mercedes	1m55.903s	23 Laps
4.	Jenson Button McLaren	1m56.076s	28 Laps
5.	Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing	1m55.459s	18 Laps
6.	Nico Hulkenberg Williams	1m56.501s	26 Laps
7.	Felipe Massa Ferrari	1m56.555s	30 Laps
8.	Vitaly Petrov Renault	1m56.750s	26 Laps
9.	Fernando Alonso Ferrari	1m57.140s	25 Laps
10.	Pedro De La Rosa Sauber	1m57.255s	24 Laps
11.	Kamui Kobayashi Sauber	1m57.352s	27 Laps
12.	Adrian Sutil Force India	1m57.361s	29 Laps
13.	Rubens Barrichello Williams	1m57.452s	21 Laps
14.	Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India	1m57.833s	29 Laps
15.	Robert Kubica Renault	1m58.155s	29 Laps
16.	Jaime Alguersuari Scuderia Toro Rosso	1m59.799s	31 Laps
17.	Mark Webber Red Bull Racing	2m00.444s	12 Laps
18.	Heikki Kovalainen Lotus	2m00.873s	23 Laps
19.	Jarno Trulli Lotus	2m00.990s	14 Laps
20.	Timo Glock Virgin Racing	2m02.037s	3 Laps
21.	Lucas Di Grassi Virgin Racing	2m02.188s	21 Laps
22.	Bruno Senna Hispania Racing	2m06.968s	17 Laps
23.	Sebastien Buemi Scuderia Toro Rosso	No Time	1 Lap
24.	Karun Chandhok Hispania Racing	No Time	0 Laps