(Motorsport) Reigning Formula 1 champion Max Verstappen finished final practice 2 in pole position ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, narrowly edging out Charles Leclerc who finished second. The conditions were similar to the one that the drivers will experience during qualifying and the grid result is a good indicator of how the cars might line up at the race on Sunday. Ferrari have looked incredibly consistent so far and Leclerc led for the majority of the hour, only to be overtaken by Verstappen who posted a time of 1:31.936 on soft tyres, the difference between the two drivers being just 0.087s.

Ferrari’s second driver Carlos Sainz finished third, such was the Italian team’s performance that it’s expected that they can go toe-to-toe with the likes of Red Bull and Mercedes this season and possibly compete for the World Championship after 15 years. As for Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton struggled with a variety of issues and only managed to finish ninth while George Russell ended up fourth. The Silver Arrows seem to have 'porpoising' issues and are struggling to unlock the pace of the car.  

An increasingly frustrated Hamilton said during the race “Some sort of problem with the front brakes man, the front right is pulling. We're faced with much bigger problems this year.” Meanwhile, George Russell said “I think it's clear we're certainly not where we want to be. We're a long way off the pace of Red Bull, Ferrari, even the likes of AlphaTauri, Alfa Romeo are on our pace or quicker, so we've got a bit of work to do."

Fernando Alonso in the Alpine, Hamilton’s former teammate Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo and Mick Schumacher in the Haas finished ahead of the seven-time World Champion. Kevin Magnussen, who replaced Nikita Mazepin in the Haas, finished 10th while McLaren had a disappointing session as Lando Norris finished 11th and Daniel Ricciardo was 18th. Pierre Gasly ended in 13th place after an impressive FP1 and Nico Hulkenberg, replacing Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin this weekend, finished 17th.

Also read: Haas confirm Kevin Magnussen will replace Mazepin for 2022 season