Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped Friday’s second Formula One practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, while championship leader Kimi Antonelli struggled to find his rhythm at a dusty Sepang circuit.
Leclerc lapped the 5.543-km circuit with a time of one minute, 37.528 seconds, less than a tenth of a second faster than Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar who improved his lap time on the soft tyres.
McLaren’s reigning world champion Lando Norris was third-fastest in FP2 after finishing 12th in the first session at the Sepang International Circuit, which is hosting the Bahrain race due to the conflict in the Middle East.
Red Bull’s four-times world champion Max Verstappen had dominated the opening session and still held the fastest time of the day (1:37.520) from FP1, but could only manage fourth in the second session as he eyes his first win of the season.
“We started off well. It’s just very high deg (degradation). A lot of things to look at with the tyres,” Verstappen said.
“We tried a few things, but then also the track is hotter, different tyres. In FP1 you’re on softs and then in FP2 I was on mediums, so a bit hard to say if we actually went forward.”
Verstappen won the last Malaysian Grand Prix in 2017 before it dropped off the F1 calendar, with the government saying it could no longer justify the costs.
Friday’s sessions unfolded under sunny skies, though a dusty start-finish straight created hazy viewing conditions, and teams were relieved to see the rain stay away.
“Today the conditions were very, very poor and so it was very slippery,” Leclerc said.
“We need to be good at anticipating what it will feel like tomorrow once the track is in better condition. High degradation is going to be a big thing for the race, because tyres are not lasting for very long.”
