Hamilton sets stunning time as Hulkenberg and Piastri clash in Bahrain test

Lewis Hamilton improved by nearly seven-tenths of a second to continue to lead the times with the fastest lap of F1 testing in a heavily disrupted morning session of Day 2. 

Hamilton had set the fastest lap of testing on a 1:30.080, before the field lost almost an hour of track time due to light, persistent drizzle that sent everyone bar intermediate-shod Esteban Ocon into the pits. 

After the session ticked past the halfway mark, the rain stopped, with George Russell the first driver to venture back out, and quickly set the first lap time in the 1:29 region, but this lasted a matter of seconds before Hamilton usurped his former team-mate.

Hamilton continued to improve his times on the C3 tyres that will serve as the soft for qualifying for the Bahrain GP in April as he conducted yet more performance runs, eventually lowering the benchmark to a 1:29.379. 

He ended 0.399s faster than Russell, with this time being just two-tenths slower than Max Verstappen's 2024 pole-time of a 1:29.179. It was also faster than Hamilton's Mercedes Q3 lap of 1:29.710.

In an otherwise quiet session aside from the rain, the only major talking point was contact between Nico Hulkenberg and Oscar Piastri at Turn 8.

Hulkenberg was on a slow lap, and moved to the outside to allow Piastri through, but as the Stake eventually had to turn into the corner, he and Piastri made light contact.

Both were able to continue on, as Piastri was seventh fastest, with Hulkenberg ninth. 

Carlos Sainz took an encouraging third for Williams, within a second of Hamilton's time, as Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda all completed at least 37 laps for Alpine, Aston Martin, and Racing Bulls, respectively.

Liam Lawson was limited to just 28 laps after his Red Bull developed a water pressure issue on the power unit, with Ocon 10th fastest with 66 laps.

Russell completed a session-high 70 laps, with Hamilton clocking up 43.

Every driver will swap over for the afternoon running, except Sainz and Lawson who are set to enjoy a full day's running. Hamilton will next be in the car tomorrow afternoon as he has taken both morning stints across the two days thus far.

The session ended under a planned red flag as the FIA completed a routine systems test with drivers also forming up for practice starts on the grid.