McLaren nearest to Mercedes, but Rosberg and Hamilton over a second clear; Troubled P2 for Ferrari as Vettel breaks down
Monday 4 April 2016 14:36, UK
McLaren caused a major surprise in Bahrain as Jenson Button finished third behind the dominant Mercedes drivers, who set a scintillating pace in Practice Two.
On the weekend Fernando Alonso has been sidelined by a rib injury sustained in his high-speed Australian GP accident, Button delivered McLaren's most eye-catching Friday performance since their reunion with Honda 16 months ago.
Button's best lap on supersoft tyres proved the closest anyone could get to Mercedes, although the laps of expected closest challengers Ferrari were compromised by traffic and driver errors. Sebastian Vettel's SF16-H later stopped on track.
The Scuderia's problems meant Mercedes were able to streak away by over 1.2 seconds as Nico Rosberg completed a perfect Friday of timesheet-topping laps.
The German clocked a stunning 1:31.001 time on supersoft tyres, with Lewis Hamilton unable to get within 0.241 seconds of his on-form team-mate.
When is the Bahrain GP on Sky Sports this weekend?
Vettel had been half a second behind Mercedes on the soft tyres, but was already 0.9s adrift of Mercedes through the first two sectors of what should have been his quickest lap on supersofts before running wide at the final corner.
He finished sixth, one place behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who encountered traffic on both of his qualy-style laps.
Ferrari's problems then increased in the final 15 minutes when what Vettel suspected was an incorrectly fitted left-rear wheel forced him to pull into the run-off area, cutting short his race simulation.
"Mercedes are the benchmark, they have looked really competitive this afternoon and this evening, but hopefully we can be a bit closer," Vettel told Sky Sports News HQ. The car feels alright, there is bits and bobs we can improve."
Like McLaren, it was a more encouraging P2 for Toro Rosso too as Max Verstappen finished a promising fourth between Button and the Ferraris.
Red Bull and Williams continued to be closely-matched on pace, with their respective drivers Daniil Kvyat, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Felipe Massa filling out the final four positions in the top 10.
"Jenson's pace was surprising - not him but the team's! He's alright for an old man!" joked Ricciardo. "Even if Jenson was on five kilos of fuel that was a decent lap time."
Haas had occupied a top-10 berth in the early session but slipped to 12th to 14th before running into more structural problems with their VF-16 car.
The right-hand side of Romain Grosjean's front wing partially flew off when the Frenchman ran over the kerb at Turn 13.
Stoffel Vandoorne, meanwhile, ended his first day in Alonso's race seat in 11th place, 0.7s adrift of Button. However, the Belgian lost most of his time relative to his team-mate in the Bahrain circuit's first sector on his best supersoft lap.
Practice Two timesheet
1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes, 1:31.001
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 1:31.242
3. Jenson Button, McLaren, 1:32.281
4. Max Verstappen, Toro Rosso, 1:32.406
5. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 1:32.452
6. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari, 1:32.650
7. Daniil Kvyat, Red Bull, 1:32.703
8. Valtteri Bottas, Williams, 1:32.792
9. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull, 1:32.870
10. Felipe Massa, Williams, 1:32.873
11. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren, 1:32.999
12. Esteban Gutierrez, Haas, 1:33.129
13. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso, 1:33.177
14. Romain Grosjean, Haas, 1:33.384
15. Sergio Perez, Force India, 1:33.406
16. Kevin Magnussen, Renault, 1:33.447
17. Nico Hulkenberg, Force India, 1:33.570
18. Jolyon Palmer, Renault, 1:33.640
19. Pascal Wehrlein, Manor, 1:33.953
20. Marcus Ericsson, Sauber, 1:34.224
21. Felipe Nasr, Sauber, 1:34.477
22. Rio Haryanto, Manor, 1:34.562
