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Hamilton, Rosberg Top Fastest Friday Times In Bahrain

SAKIR, Bahrain- Once being partners as well as former competitors in GP2 years ago, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg set the fastest practice times on Friday in preparation for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Bahrain at Sakir.

Both McLaren and Mercedes drivers, respectively were hardly challenged all day, but the sudden improvement of the two Red Bull cars of Sebastian Vettel, who placed second in the first session, and teammate Mark Webber, who slightly struggled to get his car within a half a second behind the top drivers in the opening session, but managed to improve his time in the afternoon.

The first session saw Hamilton’s fastest time of 1:33:572 becoming thee tenths of a second faster than Vettel, with Paul Di Resta surprisingly taking third quickest in his Sahara Force India. Ferrari were never in the hunt for the fastest time, but both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were both nearly two seconds off Hamilton’s pace.

Toro Rosso struggled in this session with both Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Riccardo having to fight along with the bottom runners Caterham and Marussia on the grid. But the biggest surprise of the first session were the small amount of journalist covering the race, due to the intense security due to the latest incidents in the area.

But while Hamilton held things well in the opening session, Rosberg continued his good fortune after winning the race in China last weekend, and kept things hopeful with a 1:32:816 best time of the entire day. Both Hamilton and teammate Jenson Button were unable to get close to Rosberg’s time and with the temperature cooling down later in the day, the field became closely matched, the Red Bulls a few tenths quicker than both Mclaren’s and Mercedes cars.

Ferrari improved a little more in the afternoon as well, with Alonso setting the eighth fastest time, but with the weather becoming much warmer on Sunday, the question might not be the temperatures of the tires, but the serious risk of dehydration among the drivers.

One noticeable absence from the afternoon session was Sahara Force India, which both Di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg prepared the cars for Saturday qualifying early and left the circuit before night.

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