Piastri leads Bahrain Fp2: Red Bull struggles and Hadjar shines

Oscar Piastri topped the second free practice session for the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix, posting a time of 1:30.505 under the lights at the Sakhir circuit. His McLaren teammate Lando Norris followed closely behind, just 0.154 seconds behind. Mercedes' George Russell completed the top three, 0.527 seconds behind the Australian.

Photo: Mclaren

Another session in which McLaren demonstrated its dominance and positioned itself as the favorite team for this weekend. Both drivers were the fastest, both in the qualifying lap simulations and in terms of race pace. During the long stints, their times consistently remained between 1:36 and 1:39, while the rest of the teams ran significantly faster laps.

Mercedes, while slightly behind McLaren, once again showed great consistency, as has been the trend so far this season. Their solid pace keeps them a team to be reckoned with.

As for Ferrari, despite having struggled significantly in the first session, they looked more comfortable on track in this second session. Both drivers improved their times and showed that the updates applied to the car's floor are beginning to yield results. They may not have fully met initial expectations, but progress is being made, and that's already a positive sign for the Maranello team.

Another team worth highlighting is Williams, who also arrived in Bahrain with some upgrades to their cars. This is the first session of the year in which Carlos Sainz outpaced and stayed close to his teammate Alex Albon, suggesting that these upgrades could be starting to bear fruit for the team.

Isack Hadjar's performance is also worth highlighting, as the Racing Bulls driver showed an impressive performance, both in qualifying simulation and race pace. The young Frenchman was the best of the four Red Bull drivers, even surpassing Max Verstappen, who had a difficult day, visibly uncomfortable with the behavior of his car and unable to find a good balance.

Hadjar also outpaced Yuki Tsunoda, who had a difficult time, and Liam Lawson, completing an outstanding performance that puts him in the spotlight this weekend.

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso experienced an unusual moment on the track. While the Asturian driver was driving his Aston Martin, the steering wheel came loose, forcing him to immediately pit to replace the part and make adjustments to the system. This incident cost him valuable track time and left him with very few laps completed during the session, thus limiting his preparation for the rest of the weekend.

Also worth highlighting is the work of three rookies who made a strong impression on the day: Ollie Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Jack Doohan. All three drivers completed a very solid session, showing pace, maturity, and control. Most notably, they managed to outperform their more experienced teammates.