“Comfortably beaten”- Max Verstappen routs Charles Leclerc while Lewis Hamilton struggles in practice

Max Verstappen defeated Charles Leclerc in the FP2 in Bahrain while Lewis Hamilton struggles with his Mercedes W13.

The 2021 drivers’ champion Max Verstappen topped the FP2 session ahead of the first race of the season in Bahrain.

In the first practice session on Friday, the Red Bull finished fifth and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly stormed through the track to top the charts.

However, Gasly’s record was comfortably beaten by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc within the first ten minutes. Later, Leclerc was displaced by Verstappen on soft tyres.

Leclerc improved later in the session to close within 0.087s of the Red Bull driver.

The other Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz made “too many mistakes” on his first laps but he performed well in the second session and placed himself third in the timesheets.

Also Read: Watch Lewis Hamilton struggling with porpoising in his Mercedes W13 during Bahrain GP FP2

Lewis Hamilton struggling with the porpoising problem

For Mercedes, it was George Russell who took the lead in the fourth place while Hamilton placed himself at ninth behind Mick Schumacher’s Haas.

The seven-time world champion endured a frustrating session. He made back to back errors into turn 1 on his first two soft tyres. Hamilton could be seen struggling to tame the W13 and deal with the porpoising problem in his car.

Furthermore, Alpine Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas. The Alfa Romeo driver did only two laps in the first session but completed 30 in the second.

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, then placed himself at the 10th position right ahead of Lando Norris in his McLaren in 11th place.

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