Hamilton leads from Vettel in final Bahrain practice
World champion Lewis Hamilton beat Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel to the quickest time in final practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Photo by: XPB Images
The British driver led the way for the first time in a session this weekend, finishing with a best time of 1:34.599.
But the threat from Ferrari looked more real than ever, with Vettel less than a tenth of a second behind the Mercedes ahead of the grid-deciding session in two hours.
Nico Rosberg had to settle for third position in the second Mercedes, the German - yesterday's pace-setter - nearly four tenths off the pace.
Kimi Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari, the Finn chased by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.
Pastor Maldonado finished in seventh in the Lotus, ahead of Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and the Sauber of Felipe Nasr, who completed the top 10.
Several drivers took their time to jump onto the track as the wind made the conditions very tricky, with the circuit covered in sand despite the GP2 race taking place earlier.
McLaren's Jenson Button had no choice but to be one of the first men to run following the problems that affected him yesterday. The Briton set the early pace but was quickly outpaced by the Sauber of Nasr as the action was scarce on track.
Fifteen minutes in, only six drivers had posted a time, and Hamilton and Rosberg had not even gone out before that.
Rosberg needed just one lap to put Mercedes back on top of the times, but was outpaced first by Vettel and then by Raikkonen before the halfway point of the session, the Finn posting the first 1:36s lap of the session.
The session was red-flagged 30 minutes in when Daniil Kvyat lost control of his Red Bull at the exit of Turn 4.
The Russian lost the rear of his car under acceleration and spun. Although the spin seemed harmless, Kvyat left his car run backwards for too long and ended up rolling into the gravel.
The soft-tyre runs kicked off with some 10 minutes to go, and Force India's Hulkenberg led the way briefly before Rosberg retook P1 with a 1:34.968, over 1.5 seconds off his closest rival.
Hamilton leapt to the top with seven minutes left, while Vettel moved to second in the Ferrari just moments later.
Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
01 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:34.599 | 13 | |
02 | S. Vettel | Ferrari | 1:34.668 | +0.069 | 14 |
03 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:34.968 | +0.369 | 16 |
04 | K. Raikkönen | Ferrari | 1:35.141 | +0.542 | 13 |
05 | V. Bottas | Williams | 1:35.393 | +0.794 | 18 |
06 | F. Massa | Williams | 1:35.471 | +0.872 | 15 |
07 | P. Maldonado | Lotus | 1:36.307 | +1.708 | 14 |
08 | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:36.335 | +1.736 | 8 |
09 | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:36.421 | +1.822 | 13 |
10 | F. Nasr | Sauber | 1:36.429 | +1.830 | 18 |
11 | J. Button | McLaren | 1:36.488 | +1.889 | 14 |
12 | D. Kvyat | Red Bull | 1:36.548 | +1.949 | 7 |
13 | M. Ericsson | Sauber | 1:36.612 | +2.013 | 17 |
14 | M. Verstappen | Toro Rosso | 1:36.684 | +2.085 | 11 |
15 | S. Perez | Force India | 1:36.727 | +2.128 | 14 |
16 | F. Alonso | McLaren | 1:36.899 | +2.300 | 11 |
17 | C. Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:36.979 | +2.380 | 14 |
18 | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 1:37.151 | +2.552 | 17 |
19 | W. Stevens | Manor | 1:39.745 | +5.146 | 12 |
20 | R. Merhi | Manor | 1:40.541 | +5.942 | 14 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments