Alonso Surpasses Red Bulls in Bahrain Grand Prix FP2

Despite the continued excitement surrounding Aston Martin’s 2023 Formula 1 car, Fernando Alonso secured the fastest time in the second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, surpassing the Red Bulls.

In spite of Fernando Alonso and Aston Martin’s attempts to downplay their impressive pace from testing a week prior, their efforts were in vain as the two-time F1 champion managed to place himself between the pacesetter Sergio Perez and the defending champion Max Verstappen during the first practice session.

Highlights of the session

• Fernando Alonso achieves the fastest time of the weekend up until now.
• The gap between the Red Bulls is only 0.002 seconds.
• There is a near-miss between Norris and De Vries in the pitlane.
• Sainz’s start remains disconnected.

Alonso has now reinforced his performance by achieving the fastest time of the weekend in FP2. However, the transition to performance running and qualifying simulations led to an extremely close lead order, with only one second separating the top 13 cars, and the entire field within a margin of 1.9 seconds.

Aston Martin once again secured two cars within the top six, with Lance Stroll finishing in sixth place during his second session back in the car after missing pre-season testing due to an injury.

During the second hour-long session, Stroll managed to reduce the gap in single-lap pace between himself and his teammate Fernando Alonso, halving the 1.1 second deficit from FP1.

However, there was a suggestion of mobility issues for Stroll as he responded with “I can’t” when asked to adjust his line for Turn 1 later on in the session. During a replay, he was seen adjusting the position of his left hand on the steering wheel at the first corner, indicating that he may be experiencing discomfort or pain.

Max Verstappen managed to edge out his teammate Sergio Perez for second place, but only by a margin of 0.002 seconds. Nonetheless, Red Bull’s performance during long-run simulations suggested that they were still the team to beat.

Despite a lock-up into the Turn 9/10 complex, Fernando Alonso’s lap times were initially faster than Max Verstappen’s. However, by the end of the session, the Red Bull driver had managed to post faster lap times, with a margin of two to three tenths.

Despite being outpaced by Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso’s pace still compared favorably to that of Ferrari. Charles Leclerc managed to secure fourth place in the session, but Alonso’s performance was not far behind.

Unfortunately, Carlos Sainz, who spun in FP1, faced another challenging session as he was once again hindered and could only attempt one qualifying simulation. As a result, he finished in 14th place.

Nico Hulkenberg put in a strong performance and finished in fifth place driving Haas’s VF-23, with a gap of less than half a second from Fernando Alonso’s fastest time. Behind Lance Stroll, there was finally a hint of pace from Alpine, with new recruit Pierre Gasly securing seventh place.

Lewis Hamilton managed to secure eighth place in the session driving the best of the Mercedes cars. His teammate George Russell finished in 13th place, with a gap of three tenths from Hamilton’s time. Russell also complained about “aerodynamic disturbance” to the W14 towards the end of the session.

Lando Norris managed to finish in the top 10 once again, securing ninth place driving for McLaren. He managed to avoid a collision with the AlphaTauri of Nyck de Vries in the pitlane earlier in the session. Meanwhile, Zhou Guanyu completed the top half of the order by finishing in tenth place, driving his Alfa Romeo C43.

Bahrain Grand Prix Free Practice 2 Results .

• MORE FORMULA 1!
• Sergio Perez Leads First Practice in Bahrain
• Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram  for all the latest updates between issues.

Alonso Surpasses Red Bulls in Bahrain Grand Prix FP2 Alonso Surpasses Red Bulls in Bahrain Grand Prix FP2 Alonso Surpasses Red Bulls in Bahrain Grand Prix FP2