BAHRAIN FP2: ROSBERG FASTEST AS MERCEDES GET GOING

After a very low key afternoon FP1, it was business as usual for Mercedes in the second free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend as Nico Rosberg topped the timing sheets at the end of the incident sprinkled 90 minutes session ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg’s best time of 1:34.647 was a tenth up on Hamilton, and half a second up on the best of the rest Kimi Raikkonen who was third fastest, with Ferrari teammate fourth Sebastian Vettel – suggesting the pecking order at the top is set in stone at this stage of the season.

The first of a series of incidents started 15 minutes into the session when Jenson Button parked his McLaren for the second time on the day. Earlier a battery problem curtailed his FP1 session to a short trip down to Turn 1, before the battery packed up on the Honda powered car.

Then with a dozen minutes left in the evening session Vettel got tangled up with Sergio Perez in Turn 1 with the Force India running over the front wing of the Ferrari, which prompted a red flag situation so that some chunks of debris could be removed.

When the lights turned green again, with a mere six minutes to go, Raikkonen and Hamilton rushed down the pitlane and jumped the queue of cars at the exit – both were being investigated by the stewards as a result of their haste to get back on track, as were Perez and Vettel for their coming together but absolved them both of any blame later.

Meanwhile behind the Mercedes and Ferrari quartet, Valtteri Bottas was fifth fastest in the Williams, ahead of best Renault powered driver Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, Pastor Maldonado seventh in the Lotus, and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr in eighth.

Mercedes are favourites for Sunday’s race, with fans hoping to see another duel in the desert between Hamilton and Rosberg after last year’s thriller.

“With these tyres and with Ferrari in the mix, I think we could see a real special race here,” predicted last year’s winner Hamilton.

Bahrain Grand Prix, Sakhir – Free Practice 1, Friday 17 April 2015

Pos	No	Driver	Team	Best Time	Gap	Laps
1	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:34.647		31
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:34.762	0.115	33
3	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:35.174	0.527	30
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:35.277	0.630	26
5	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	1:35.280	0.633	36
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing	1:35.449	0.802	27
7	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus	1:35.474	0.827	34
8	12	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	1:35.793	1.146	27
9	26	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing	1:35.883	1.236	23
10	19	Felipe Massa	Williams	1:35.884	1.237	35
11	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:36.148	1.501	34
12	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:36.191	1.544	22
13	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	1:36.334	1.687	31
14	55	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	1:36.471	1.824	32
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	1:36.805	2.158	30
16	33	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso	1:36.917	2.270	26
17	11	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:37.062	2.415	33
18	28	Will Stevens	Marussia	1:39.131	4.484	21
19	22	Jenson Button	McLaren	1:39.209	4.562	15
20	98	Roberto Merhi	Marussia	1:40.592	5.945	26