Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin made their presence known in Bahrain’s FP2 session – as the Spaniard set a fastest lap of a 1.30.907.
Alonso put himself +0.169s clear of Max Verstappen in his AMR23, with the Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also significantly behind the Double World Champion. Nico Hulkenberg also set a strong time, finishing in the top 5 for Haas.
The midfield – as expected – looks very compact, with AlphaTauri seemingly at the lower end the pakc this weekend. The few tenths separating the rest of the field could make for a fascinating qualifying session in Bahrain tomorrow.
FP2: Aston Martin impressive in qualifying simulation and race pace
As with every Friday afternoon session, most drivers set fast laps on the soft tyres during FP2 – with Ferrari still struggling to optimise its package.
Max Verstappen’s team radio was very telling, with the Dutchman reporting that “the car is jumping a lot more than in testing.”
Fernando Alonso edged the Red Bull pairing for the fastest time of the session, with Charles Leclerc almost half a second behind.
The telemetry data will tell us more about the engine modes used by the teams – not just the front-runners but also the middield teams.
There would have been some variation in the fuel loads used by the team during their race simulations – altough Aston Martin once again proved very formidable in the hands of Fernando Alonso.
Lance Stroll also showed strong pace – despite his hand injury limiting his running. Once again, Red Bull’s pace is impressive, with Max Verstappen suffering no degradation on the C3.
However, a more precise analysis will be needed to understand exactly the values in the field.
Ferrari focused on the C3 in race simulations, the tyre which challenged the team so much during testing:
Significant work has taken place in the simulator over the last few days to help the team progress – as shown by Leclerc in its simulations. On the other hand, Sainz struggled more in qualifying and race trim.
Mercedes didn’t show the necessary pace to challenge Red Bull, especially in a circuit where the Silver Arrows struggled last year.
Early signs from the A523 point to a good package for Alpine, although Aston Martin’s pace could likely make it difficult for the French team to fight for fourth position.
Further back, looked slightly better than in pre-season tesiting while Alfa Romeo are still near the top 10 places. In general, it seems that lower midfield – likely behing Alpine – will be very crowded this year.
The gap from Gasly (seventh) to Tsunoda (eighteenth) was only 1.1s at the end of the first Friday of the year.
Author: Andrea Vergani
