Sebastian Vettel edged Valtteri Bottas to go fastest in the Second Free Practice session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Vettel’s time of 1:31.310 was just enough to edge Bottas’ time of 1:31.351. Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was third fastest on the evening with a time of 1:31.376, 0.066s off Vettel’s time.

Kimi Raikkonen was 4th fastest for Ferrari ahead of Lewis Hamilton in 5th. Hamilton had a bit of trouble setting a fast time. He ran wide on his first timed lap and the second time he almost ran into the back of Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg at T9. Hamilton had to avoid running into the back of while approaching T9 at full chat while Hulkenberg was on a cool down lap. The stewards said that they will investigate the incident after the session. They have subsequently summoned the two drivers for their explanation about the incident.

Hulkenberg finished 6th fastest ahead of William’s Felipe Massa in 7th.

Max Verstappen finished P8 after spending some time in the garage after sustaining damage to his floor and a few other parts on his car caused by the T-Wing that broke off Bottas’ Mercedes.

Romain Grosjean finished 9th for Haas while Daniil Kvyat completed the top 10 for Toro Rosso.

While Vettel may have set the fastest time of the session he did run into some trouble just before his long runs. His car shut down out of Turn 13. The quick thinking German undid his harnesses, reached over the steering the hit the neutral button to let his car coast to the bottom of Turn 14. He kept going and got it to the pit lane where his team was able to push him back to the garage. Ferrari were able to diagnose the problem and get Vettel out for his long runs.

Carlos Sainz also suffered from engine problem after his car came to a grinding halt at Turn 11 after smoke was seen out of the back of the Toro Rosso.

Stoffel Vandoorne who ended his FP1 early had to cut his FP2 session short after engine troubles put an end to his session. This is quite concerning for Honda after they opted to change his engine ahead of FP2 while they investigated the problem with his FP1 engine.

Red Bull have shown some good long run pace and are up there with Ferrari and Mercedes. Hamilton was unable to complete a flying lap simulation but he looked very quick the times he did get to complete a few sectors. It will be close between the Ferrari’s and Mercedes once again in qualifying.

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION (END OF FP2) ⏱️

Vettel tops the pile for the second time today 💪

Just 0.284 between P1 and P5 😯#BahrainGP 🇧🇭 pic.twitter.com/taRpEKo8pE

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 14, 2017

Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula One