Fernando Alonso brought Aston Martin-Mercedes to the top of the timesheets in today’s second Free Practice session today in a cooler climate, as night time fell at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with a time of 1m30.907s, 0.169s ahead of Max Verstappen, and 0.171s in front of Sergio Perez in the two Red Bull-Honda’s. Aston Martin reserve driver and 2022 F2 champion Felipe Drugovich is available as a replacement if Stroll is unable to continue later in the weekend. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly set a time of 1m31.475s to finish in 7th, ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in 11th, 0.133s slower. Unlike in Free Practice 1, Ferrari, Mercedes, Alpine and Williams all ran soft tires, but none were a match for Alonso as the teams began making qualifying runs about 20 minutes into the session.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•