Kimi Raikkonen led a Ferrari 1-2 under the lights as the Scuderia firmly inserted themselves as the team to beat in Practice 2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Finn was able to extract the most from his Supersoft tyres during the qualifying simulation with his 1m29.817s just 0.011s clear of teammate Sebastian Vettel, who couldn’t maintain a strong initial pace across the three sectors.
Both Ferraris were the only cars sub 90 seconds though, with Valtteri Bottas half a second back in third in the lead Mercedes while Lewis Hamilton made an error on his first attempted flying lap and would finish all-but a second down in fourth.
Daniel Ricciardo also had to complete a second flying lap on the Supersofts in fifth after almost colliding with Bottas at Turn 4 during his first effort with the Finn unaware of the fast-approaching Red Bull.
Max Verstappen was playing catch up after missing the morning session due to an electric problem and it was a case of the Dutchman simply struggling to get his tyres into the right window as he sat down in sixth.
To end the session all teams completed a race simulation with Ferrari again looking superior albeit the gaps were much smaller. There was a problem for Raikkonen though, as the ‘Iceman’ was forced to pull over due to a loose wheel after a practice pitstop.
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Delving into a very competitive midfield where 1.2 seconds covered Nico Hulkenberg in seventh for Renault down to Sergey Sirotkin in 18th for Williams.
One of the surprise names featuring in the top 10 was Pierre Gasly in the Honda-powered Toro Rosso in eighth with the Frenchman a whopping 1.6 seconds faster than teammate Brendon Hartley who was slowest overall.
The two McLarens completed the would be Q3 positions in qualifying as Haas slipped down the order with Romain Grosjean P11 and Kevin Magnussen only P15.
Both Force Indias made some progress in 13th and 14th as Charles Leclerc impressed in 16th, leading the two Williams and three-tenths clear of teammate Marcus Ericsson.
