Lewis Hamilton denied Max Verstappen P1 in a disrupted Practice 2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Dutchman had been fastest for most of the session under the lights at Sakhir, but after two red flags had impacted the usual run plans, the Mercedes driver went out and popped his car at the top of the timesheet.
After the first part of practice was handed over to more running on the 2021-spec C3 tyre, Verstappen would set an impressive 1m29.3s on the mediums to sit in P1.
Highlighting how good the time was, the Red Bull driver and even Valtteri Bottas couldn’t match it on his first flying lap on the softs.
Sergio Perez impressed to be within a tenth of the Mercedes in the Racing Point, with Daniel Ricciardo close behind for Renault.
At the halfway point though, the session was red-flagged following a hefty crash for Alex Albon at the final corner.
Moments after the track went green a second red flag was called for a dog on the circuit.
With the four-legged intruder having found an escape route through the barriers, most of the drivers went straight into long runs for the final 25 minutes.
The exception was Hamilton, who bolted on a set of softs and went three-tenths faster than Verstappen with a 1m28.971s to complete a clean sweep of Friday practice sessions.
Lewis’ lap also demoted Bottas, Perez and Ricciardo down a position each with Pierre Gasly sixth in the AlphaTauri.
A three-tenths gap separated the Frenchman to Lando Norris in seventh, as the McLaren driver led another group of midfield cars including Lance Stroll in eighth and Sebastian Vettel in 12th.
The order wasn’t completely representative due to the mid-session stoppages, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc among those not setting a flying lap in 13th and 14th.
Alfa Romeo, Haas and Williams completed the timesheet.
During the long run, the usual Bahrain issue of high rear degradation emerged with both the soft and medium tyres struggling for grip over an extended stint.
That means strategy is set to be crucial in the race on Sunday, provided of course anyone can keep up with Hamilton.
Full results from Practice 2 can be seen below:
