Oscar Piastri led a McLaren one-two in the second practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix, with the Australian finishing 1500ths of a second clear of team-mate Lando Norris. 

The pair used the hour-long session to forge a strong advantage over the rest of the field, with Mercedes’ George Russell half a second off the pace in third place and with Japanese Grand Prix winner Max Verstappen in P7 and over eight tenths of a second adrift of top spot. 

In the opening quarter of the session, it was Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton who set the early pace with a lap of 1:32.157 on Mediums. Soft tyre-shod Kimi Antonelli slotted into second, +0.141 off the man he replaced at Mercedes, while George Russel was third on the same tyre, almost four tenths off his former team-mate. Max Verstappen then moved ahead of Russell with a lap of 1:32.376 on Soft tyres after the Red Bull driver had earlier complained about the ride of his car, which was bumping around the track. 

There was a bigger problem, though, for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who had an issue with his steering wheel and returned to the garage to fit a new one. 

Just after the quarter hour mark Russell moved in the 1m31s bracket and to the top of the timesheet as he outpaced Hamilton by two tenths of a second. 

Hamilton then bolted on a set of Soft tyres and thanks to a purple middle sector he moved back to P1 with a lap of 1:31.915, still almost two seconds off Verstappen’s 2024 pole time. 

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was the next to get a spell in P1 as he also used Soft tyres to move the benchmark to 1:31.729. The Monegasque’s time at the top was all too brief, however, as Williams’ Alex Albon posted a time of 1:31.696 to slip past and then Verstappen found almost four tenths more to claim P1 with a lap of 1:31.330. 

The McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had spent much of the opening half of the session running Hard compound Pirelli tyres but as the midpoint approached both moved to Soft tyres and Piastri took top spot on 1:30.505, just 0.0154 ahead of Norris. The Mercedes pair also moved ahead of Verstappen with Russell in third, half a second off Piastri, with Antonelli two tenths further back. 

With a little over 20 minutes left in the session Leclerc split the Mercedes, 0.013s off Russell, but there was no upward movement for Verstappen who complained that he had no brakes in the final corner as he stalled in P7 behind stablemate Isack Hadjar who was the highest placed of the Red Bull owned cars with a time of 1:31.238 set on Medium tyres. Verstappen, however, was working his way through a longer run on Softs, as was team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who was down on 17th place. 

With long runs now the order of the evening, the times settled and with the McLarens of Piastri in the top two spots ahead of Russell and Leclerc, with Antonelli in fifth place. Hadjar took sixth for Racing Bulls, with Verstappen in seventh and still complaining of brake issues in the final corner. Hamilton took eighth place for Ferrari, just 0.008s ahead of Haas’ Oliver Bearman who put in a strong performance to finish ahead the Williams pair of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon. 

2025 FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:30.505 26 215.272
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:30.659 0.154 25 214.906
3 George Russell Mercedes 1:31.032 0.527 22 214.025
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:31.045 0.540 24 213.995
5 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:31.227 0.722 24 213.568
6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:31.238 0.733 21 213.542
7 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:31.330 0.825 24 213.327
8 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:31.576 1.071 20 212.754
9 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:31.584 1.079 24 212.735
10 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:31.623 1.118 25 212.645
11 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:31.696 1.191 26 212.476
12 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:31.706 1.201 24 212.452
13 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:31.772 1.267 22 212.300
14 Jack Doohan Alpine/Renault 1:31.788 1.283 24 212.263
15 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:31.825 1.320 16 212.177
16 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:31.870 1.365 23 212.073
17 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:31.947 1.442 24 211.895
18 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:32.024 1.519 21 211.718
19 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:32.382 1.877 24 210.898
20 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:32.496 1.991 20 210.638