{"id":18790,"date":"2024-02-29T13:43:01","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T18:43:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=18790"},"modified":"2024-03-01T00:25:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T05:25:14","slug":"lewis-hamilton-leads-mercedes-1-2-in-intriguing-bahrain-fp2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/29\/lewis-hamilton-leads-mercedes-1-2-in-intriguing-bahrain-fp2\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 in intriguing Bahrain FP2"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Lewis Hamilton and George Russell surprised the field in Practice by topping timing sheets.<\/h3>\n<p>Out of all the front-running teams, Mercedes were the most reserved during pre-season. The Silver Arrows kept their cards close to their chest, prioritising understanding of the car over outright pace.<\/p>\n<p>However, the second practice session of 2024 saw Mercedes begin to flex their muscles.<\/p>\n<p>The German constructor, like the rest of the field, completed several qualifying simulations on the soft tyres.<\/p>\n<p>Although fuel loads and engine modes are unknown, this session is undoubtedly the most representative of the season so far.<\/p>\n<p>In this 1 hour period, Mercedes set a series of impressive times. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/28\/lewis-hamilton-reveals-mentality-ahead-of-ferrari-2025-move\/\" target=\"_self\">Lewis Hamilton<\/a> found consistent improvement on the softs, whilst teammate George Russell eventually put himself within a few tenths of the 7-time Champion.<\/p>\n<p>Both drivers were ahead of their typical rivals, including Red Bull, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/02\/29\/charles-leclerc-establishes-ferrari-development-aims-for-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari,<\/a> McLaren and Aston Martin.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"DP1gRg5mTvRJRtrrc1bM0A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2048352377\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'DP1gRg5mTvRJRtrrc1bM0A',sig:'t4ELDGIxbNSFS1zOx7I_ZYJFn_1KtQ8Y6UM14RFXjIU=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2048352377',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Even before today&#8217;s running, it was relatively well-established that Mercedes were faster than testing indicated.<\/p>\n<p>Not only was this the perspective within the paddock, but even technical director James Allison alluded to the W15 having more lap time in its pocket.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, it is important to mention a series of disclaimers before getting carried away.<\/p>\n<p>Max Verstappen and Red Bull are still the undeniable favourites this weekend. The Dutchman&#8217;s long-run pace at the end of the session was confirmation of the RB20&#8217;s likely superiority.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, it is important to contextualise the journey Toto Wolff&#8217;s team has taken in the last year.<\/p>\n<p>Catching up to the fastest car is difficult in the best of times, let alone whilst embarking on a fresh concept.<\/p>\n<p>If Mercedes can compete for a podium and give Red Bull something to think about in Bahrain, that would be a commendable effort.<\/p>\n<p>As it stands, though, it is difficult to assess how much performance the top 5 teams have kept in reserve.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody showed their absolute pace in FP2, so tomorrow&#8217;s qualifying will give us the first concrete indications where the teams lie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lewis Hamilton and George Russell surprised the field in Practice by topping timing sheets. Out of all the front-running teams, Mercedes were the most reserved during pre-season. The Silver Arrows kept their cards close to their chest, prioritising understanding of the car over outright pace. However, the second practice session of 2024 saw Mercedes begin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":18793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,23,76,121],"class_list":["post-18790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-mercedes"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}