McLaren bash F1 rivals in Bahrain as Verstappen suffers brake woes

McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris served notice they will be a force to be reckoned with for the remainder of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

In the more representative conditions under the lights of the Bahrain International Circuit that will prevail for qualifying and the race, Piastri and Norris were head and shoulders ahead of their F1 rivals.

With final practice due to be staged in the heat of the day, Friday night's running offered a clear glimpse of what to expect when it comes to the one-lap showdown in particular on Saturday.

Piastri even had a clear edge over Norris as the Australian finished with a soft-tyre, low-fuel lap of 1:30.505s, finishing 0.154s clear of Norris. The best of the rest was George Russell in his Mercedes, over half a second down on Piastri.

Ferrari falter with new floor

For FP2, in contrast to the high heat of the first session, the track temperature had dropped by 14 degrees to 34, and the air 'cooler' by five degrees to 30.

McLaren has suggested so far this season it holds an edge in such conditions. It will be a surprise if it does not lock out the front row of the grid, and from there finish with a one-two on Sunday, barring incident.

The circuit is old and abrasive, affording McLaren an advantage as team principal Andrea Stella claims the car is 'more gentle' on its tyres compared to the other teams.

Initially, running a new floor on a Ferrari that has so far disappointed this year bar Lewis Hamilton's sprint pole and victory in China, Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc fared well, each taking a turn at the top of the timesheet early on.

It quickly became clear, however, that the bar raised was not very high.  As the soft tyre runs unfolded, Hamilton and Leclerc slowly slipped down the pecking order, becoming also-rans in comparison to the McLarens.

Leclerc at least managed to finish just 0.013s behind Russell, but like the Briton, was more than five-tenths of a second adrift of the McLaren pair, with Hamilton a second down in eighth.

Russell's rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli was fifth quickest, 0.722s fadrift, ollowed by the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar, who was faster than the lead Red Bull of Max Verstappen in seventh by a tenth of a second.

Verstappen, who sat out FP1 for Ayuma Iwasa, complained early on about the ride of his RB21, that it was "jumping a lot", before later targeting the brakes, stating they were not working as he would like on two separate occasions.

Behind Hamilton, fellow Briton Oliver Bearman in his Haas was just 0.008s behind the four-time F1 champion, with Williams' Carlos Sainz completing the top 10 ahead of team-mate Alex Albon.

Fernando Alonso, who sat out first practice in favour of reserve Felipe Drugovich, lost a further 30 minutes of FP2 due to a steering wheel issue that forced Aston Martin to change parts of the steering system.

In the opening foray laps, the steering wheel even came off the rack in Alonso's hands. Mercifully, he was not doing a push lap. The two-time F1 champion ended up a lowly 15th.

Nico Hulkenberg brought up the rear in his Stake, almost two seconds adrift.