03/03/2023
NEWS STORY
Ahead of this evening's session, the air temperature is 23 degrees C, while the track temperature is 28 degrees.
Perez was quickest earlier, ahead of Alonso and Verstappen, while Sainz lost track time after a major spin. Teammate Charles Leclerc changed the mount on his rear wing after experiencing some serious wobbling.
Due to the timing of qualifying and the race, this session is far more representative of the conditions we can expect.
As a reminder here are the upgrades this weekend.
Red Bull has a revised Floor Edge, Front Wing and Coke/Engine Cover, Ferrari a new Front Suspension, Front Wing and Engine Cover.
Mercedes has a new Front Wing Endplate, Rear Wing, Nose, Floor Edge, Sidepod Inlet and Front Suspension, while Alpine has a new Front Wing, Nose, Front Suspension, Front Corner, Floor Body, Engine Cover, Rear Suspension, Rear Corner, Beam Wing and Rear Wing.
McLaren has a new Front Wing, Floor Body, Front Corner, Sidepod Inlet and Engine Cover, Cooling Louvres, Beam Wing and Rear Corner, while Alfa Romeo has a new
Front Suspension, Floor Body, Halo, Sidepod Inlet, Engine Cover, Rear Corner, Rear Suspension and Beam Wing.
At Aston Martin it's a new Front Wing, Front Wing Endplate, Front Suspension, Floor Fences, Floor Body, Floor Edge, Diffuser, Sidepod Inlet, Engine Cover, Cooling Louvres, Rear Suspension, Rear Corner, Beam Wing, Rear Wing and Rear Wing Endplate.
Haas has a new Nose, Front Wing, Front Wing Endplate, Front Suspension, Floor Fences, Floor Body, Front Corner, Cooling Louvres, Diffuser and Rear Suspension, while AlphaTauri has a new Nose, Front Wing, Front Suspension, Front Corner, Floor Body, Floor Edge, Diffuser, Sidepod Inlet, Engine Cover, Cooling Louvres and Rear Wing Endplate.
Finally, at Williams, it's a new Nose, Front Wing, Front Suspension, Front Corner, Engine Cover, Rear Wing, Beam Wing, Halo, Floor Fences, Rear Suspension, Rear Corner, Front Suspension, Floor Edge and Diffuser.
Local time is 18:00, the circuit is under floodlights.
The lights go green and Stroll leads the way, followed by Bottas, Zhou, de Vries and Ocon.
As more drivers head out it's a mixture of mediums and softs, Mercedes was one of several teams to stick to the yellow-banded rubber earlier, but now both drivers have gone soft.
Stroll posts a benchmark 33.624 on the mediums. Ocon (softs) responds with a 32.415.
Alonso complains that his brake pedal is "very long", as Sainz posts a 31.956 on softs.
A 31.843 sees Leclerc go top on the softs as Hamilton posts 32.416 and Russell a 32.505.
Leclerc complaining about something "strange with the clutch" as he did in FP1.
Some early argy-bargy involving Piastri, Tsunoda and an Aston Martin.
Russell is concerned at the temperature of his front-right.
Piastri runs wide in Turn 1 after locking-up and going too deep. He pits as a result of the flat-spot incurred.
Hulkenberg reports his brake pedal is soft and long.
"The car is jumping around a lot more than testing," reports Verstappen.
Following the first wave it's: Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Gasly and Ocon, all on softs, while Perez is sixth on the medium, 0.654s off the pace.
With the track to themselves, and both on softs, Sargeant goes 9th and Albon 11th.
Soon the pair are joined by all but Gasly, Alonso and Verstappen, the majority on softs.
Stroll goes purple in S1 as Magnussen goes third overall, just 0.267s off the pace.
Stroll maintains the pace in S2, finally crossing the line at 31.450 to go quickest by 0.393s.
De Vries is released right into the path of Norris in the pitlane.
No sooner has Hulkenberg goes quickest (31.376) than Leclerc and then Perez (31.078) raise the bar.
Alonso responds with a 30.907.
Verstappen heads out on the softs. He posts a PB in the first sector, going quickest in the second. At the line he posts 31.076, 0.169s down on Alonso.
The stewards have noted the pitlane incident involving de Vries.
"It was a bit scrappy," admits Gasly after going seventh, "I locked-up in Turn 1 but the rest was ok."
"Please check the floor," urges Russell, "coming out of seven I had a big wobble."
At first it appears that Sainz is on a qualifying sim, but in fact it's a race sim. He's not the only one.
The Spaniard is 14th on the timesheets, while the shower of sparks that follows him on the main straight confirms the SF-23 is bottoming.
Sargeant runs wide in Turn 10.
With 15 minutes remaining, race sims are the order of the day with all bar Zhou and Magnussen on track.
The Top 13 are covered by 0.975s.
Alonso runs wide in Turn 10.
"We can't have these issues man, we need to be more on it," snaps a frustrated Perez as he is given a list of settings changes to make.
Though he is at the bottom of the timesheets, Sargeant has completed the most laps (20), ahead of Stroll, Hamilton, Norris, Zhou, Bottas, Sainz, Albon and Piastri, all on 19.
"We need to compromise Turn 1 and have a better line in Turn 2," Stroll is advised. However, the Canadian responds that he can't do this "because of his hands", this, of course, referring to his injured wrists.
Topping the timesheets, Alonso is also showing strong pace on his ling run.
"Out lap critical," Hamilton is told as he heads out on fresh softs.
"Rears are really struggling," reports Sargeant.
The session ends. Alonso is quickest, ahead of Verstappen, Perez, Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Stroll, Gasly, Hamilton, Norris and Zhou.
Ocon is eleventh, ahead of Bottas, Russell, Sainz, Piastri, Magnussen, Albon, Tsunoda, de Vries and Sargeant.
It's far, far too early to be making predictions but the form that Aston Martin showed in testing was clearly no flash in the pan. Indeed, after two sessions we're not talking Red Bull and Ferrari or Mercedes but Red Bull and Aston Martin.
That said, Ferrari has yet to show its hand whilst Mercedes must surely have something up its sleeve.
With the Top 13 covered by less than a second it's looking good, with the midfield as unpredictable as the front of the pack.
Check out our Friday gallery from Manama here.