Friday evening’s second practice for the 2016 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix threw up something of a shock. Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton finishing one-two for Mercedes not a big surprise, but that Jenson Button taking third place for McLaren was the weeks biggest news, so fare.
Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton to the top spot in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The German clocked a 1m31.001s on the super-soft tyres, nearly 1.6 seconds quicker than last year’s pole position time, to finish 0.241s clear of Hamilton.
Rosberg continued the team’s dominance in the second session as the sun set and the floodlights flickered on at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Jenson Button showed surprising form with McLaren as he became the Mercedes’ closest challenger but he was 1.280s off the pace with Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen fourth, a tenth further back.
Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were fifth and sixth, well over a second down on Mercedes.
Vettel was 0.218secs off Raikkonen and 1.6secs behind Rosberg after admitting he “messed up” his best lap with a number of errors.
There was not much evidence that Ferrari might be able to take the fight to Mercedes this weekend, with the Italian cars lagging some way behind the silver ones for the vast majority of the day.
Vettel did start his race-simulation run on the ‘soft’ tyres promisingly, lapping at a pace close to Mercedes for the first time all day.
But before a full picture emerged of the two cars’ comparative pace the Ferrari ground to a halt out on track with 15 minutes of the session remaining.
Vettel told the team over the radio that the rear left wheel was not properly attached to the car.
Mercedes believe they have evidence that Ferrari are protecting a fragility in their engine by restricting as much as possible the amount of time they run it at full power.
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