A phenomenal move by Hamilton pays off.
SAKHIR, Bahrain—November 27th—Even after clinching his record-tying world drivers’ championship two weeks ago in Turkey, Lewis Hamilton took the fastest Friday practice times at the Bahrain International Circuit in preparation for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Hamilton had a 1:28:971 best time late in the second session.
Max Verstappen was second in his Red Bull, who led most of the second session, divides the two Mercedes as Valtteri Bottas took third.
With the Mercedes drivers coming one-two in the opening day session, everyone knew that when the evening session came around, the track temperatures would cool the track down–and even if the morning session had a cloud cover for most of the session–evening would prove tough for their drivers trying to attempt a good lap with their tire compounds finding a lack of grip.
Even worse was that the practice sessions involved the new experimental rubber that the sport’s only tire supplier, Pirelli was giving them was specially made for next season. Verstappen had taken the lead early in the second session when he went out on soft rubber and had the fastest time. But the Dutchman could not improve his time following his driving on the harder compound, and could not improve his time, although he was still in the lead ahead of Bottas.
But Hamilton, who was in 20th and last, took a risk and came out in the final few minutes on soft tires, which gave him the fastest time of the day, taking both the first and second Friday practice sessions.
The evening session was interrupted twice when Red Bull’s Alex Albon oversteered in a dusty run-off area, snapping his car left, through the gravel trap and finally striking the barriers at the final corner. Albon climbed out of the car, but there was heavy damage, especially in the rear. This incident brought the red flag out for 10 minutes.
The second incident was something that had occurred in Grand Prix racing before, as a stray dog managed to crawl under a fence and run onto the circuit. The dog itself found another fence to escape, but the incident forced the cars back into the pits for another wasted five minutes of another red flag session.
Although he might move on to another formula next season, Sergio Perez took fourth in his Racing Point, while Daniel Ricciardo finished fifth in his Renault. Pierre Gasly grabbed sixth in his Alpha Tauri, with Lando Norris seventh in the McLaren. Lance Stroll and Dani Kvyat were eighth and ninth in the second Racing Point and Alpha Tauri entities, respectively, while despite his accident, Albon took tenth. The American Haas F1 Team drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, were 16th and 19th.
The race, which is run at night, would have been run last April, but was moved later in the season because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
