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

Samriddhi Jaiswal | 19/03/2022
"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.

Also Read: Lewis Hamilton meets with the FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem to discuss matters on more diversity in F1

Post Edited By: Samriddhi Jaiswal
carlos sainz Charles Leclerc ferrari George Russel Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Mercedes Red Bull

About the author

Samriddhi Jaiswal

Samriddhi Jaiswal is an F1 editor and writer at The SportsRush. She started her career as a business journalist but soon found her calling in lights out here we go! Samriddhi has been a Ferrari fan even when her interaction with F1 was occasional. Her first real experience with the thrilling sport came when Charles Leclerc clinched his iconic victory in Spa and Monza and painted the track red. Now, a Tifosi, Samriddhi is a hardcore fan of the prancing horse and can relate to the chaos within the Italian camp and also admires Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Off the track, she finds her home in books and musical instruments.

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