Mercedes bounced back from a poor start to testing by setting the quickest lap time so far on the second day in Bahrain.
Valtteri Bottas, who took over from team mate Lewis Hamilton at lunch time, set a 1’30.289 which put him ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly by a tenth of a second.In much better conditions, the track cleaned up quickly as the drivers cleared the dust from yesterday’s sandstorm. The afternoon session was largely incident-free, no cars having to be retrieved and no driver suffering any significant problems, and most teams covered more than 100 laps.
Sergio Perez, running all day today for Red Bull, had had a strange incident when his car shed its left-rear engine cover and sidepod as he emerged from Nicholas Latifi’s slipstream to overtake the Williams. He returned him to the garage with the Honda power unit exposed. He reappeared later in the session but didn’t improve his time.
After a brief red flag to clear the debris from Perez’s sidepod, Gasly, Antonio Giovinazzi and Lando Norris resumed swapping the fastest times. All three lapped 1’31 and Gasly and Norris both yesterday’s best time, set by Max Verstappen.
Mick Schumacher, who had extremely limited running in the morning session yesterday due to a gearbox change, put in an enormous number of laps this afternoon to make up for it.
Mercedes spent most of the afternoon, as yesterday and this morning, well off the pace, with both cars outside the top 10 until over halfway through the second session. However, Bottas put on a set of C5 tyres, the softest available for this test, to go fastest in the last 20 minutes of the session on a 1’30.289, beating Gasly’s time on the same tyres by a tenth and two tenths ahead of Norris on the C4 compound. Lance Stroll also set a late fast time on the medium tyres, beating Norris for third place on the second day.
The session again ended with a red flag, for procedural reasons rather than due to any incidents on track.
Pos. | Car number | Driver | Team | Model | Best time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | W12 | 1’30.289 | 56 | |
2 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | AT02 | 1’30.413 | 0.124 | 86 |
3 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | AMR21 | 1’30.460 | 0.171 | 70 |
4 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren | MCL35M | 1’30.586 | 0.297 | 52 |
5 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | C41 | 1’30.760 | 0.471 | 125 |
6 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | SF21 | 1’30.886 | 0.597 | 73 |
7 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | FW43B | 1’31.672 | 1.383 | 132 |
8 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | RB16B | 1’31.682 | 1.393 | 117 |
9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | MCL35M | 1’32.215 | 1.926 | 52 |
10 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | A521 | 1’32.339 | 2.050 | 128 |
11 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | AT02 | 1’32.684 | 2.395 | 57 |
12 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | VF-21 | 1’32.883 | 2.594 | 86 |
13 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | Ferrari | SF21 | 1’33.072 | 2.783 | 56 |
14 | 9 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | VF-21 | 1’33.101 | 2.812 | 76 |
15 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | W12 | 1’33.399 | 3.110 | 58 |
16 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | AMR21 | 1’38.849 | 8.560 | 10 |
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2021 F1 season
- Verdict on error in GT race suggests Mercedes would have lost 2021 Abu Dhabi GP appeal
- Title ‘stolen’ from Mercedes made us ‘underdogs people cheer for’ – Wolff
- Red Bull Racing spent £230m during Verstappen’s title-winning 2021 campaign
- ‘I can’t box?’: Hamilton and Verstappen’s 2021 Abu Dhabi GP radio transcript
- Abu Dhabi’s legacy one year on: How the controversial 2021 finale changed F1
Mike
13th March 2021, 16:26
One tenth ahead of Alpha Tauri on C5…hmmm. Four tenths faster than RB’s yesterday who were on C3 in far worse conditions. Yes, MB are on top today but something looks off.
anon
13th March 2021, 18:10
Gasly’s lap was also on the same C5 compound though.
Kribana (@krichelle)
13th March 2021, 16:31
Cars look too slowwww and heavy, really noticeable through the hairpin and turn 11, as the drivers looked really late on the throttle there. I hope that is just due to the teams running high fuel only, and not due to the loss of downforce these cars received.
BasCB (@bascb)
13th March 2021, 16:55
I’d estimate that is a combination of not quite having the tyres figured out, the heavy cars, somewhat lower (rear) downforce but also the strong winds @krichelle
Machinery
13th March 2021, 19:28
GG, Mercedes’ rivals, i wish you better luck next year
Ajaxn
13th March 2021, 19:37
I thought after Hamilton’s poor show, that Mercedes might be running a double bluff, but it seems Bottas is doing well enough in the new car. This just leaves the tire choices as the likely differences between them. Eg Hamilton is testing tires with the new config, whilst Bottas is testing the engine under race conditions. Hamilton’s 60 laps, makes more sense, since you wouldnt really need to test the tires any longer than a race is likely to last.