Practice 2: Rosberg heads Mercedes top four

Mar.12 (YF1) Mercedes powered cars hogged the top four places on the timing sheets at the end of Free Practice 2 on the first day of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend with Nico Rosberg (Mercedes GP) fastest of all.

With Adrian Sutil quickest in the first day in the Mercedes powered Force India earlier in the day it has been a strong opening day for the three pointed star. However the session will only serve to further confuse the perceived pecking order as teams focus on their practice strategies apparently oblivious to the timing sheets.

Around the three quarter hour mark in the session Rosberg went to the top of the timing screens with a lap time of and remained there for the remainder of the session 1 minute 55.409 seconds, which was almost half a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) who split the Silver Arrows.

Michael Schumacher showed a touch of his old speed by claiming third fastest lap, only a fraction slower than Hamilton.

Jenson Button (McLaren Mercedes) made it three F1 World champions in the top four with his time that put him fourth quickest.

The Renault powered Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel was fifth fastest as the German looked strong all session long after changing his brakes. Mark Webber, in the sister car, had a subdued session down in 17th.

Sixth fastest was Nico Hulkenberg continued to impress in his F1 debut, again quickest of the rookies and faster than veteran team mate Rubens Barrichello who was a second off his team mate’s pace down in thirteenth.

Cosworth proving that their engine certainly has the speed and has returned to the F1 scene with a solid engine capable of running with the more established power units.

Fastest of the Ferrari drivers was Felipe Massa with the seventh completing 30 laps in the process, more than any of his rivals. Team mate Fernando Alonso was ninth fastest, slightly quicker than fellow Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa in the Ferrari powered Sauber.

Russia’s first F1 driver, Vitaly Petrov (Renault) came good in the second session setting the eighth best time and adding 26 laps to his limited F1 experience. Team Mate Robert Kubica was 15th quickest.

Kamui Kobayashi was 11th fastest, signaling that despite a subdued morning practice session the Sauber’s could be the surprise package as the season gets underway.

Fastest in the first practice session of the year, but down in 12th was Force India’s Adrian Sutil. He posted a time slower than his morning effort on a track that had “got faster” by about a second in the afternoon. Again signaling that teams are working on different programmes and the times are all but meaningless.

Rubens Barrichello (Williams) was thirteenth fastest and split the Force India cars with Vitantonio Liuzzi in 14th.

After surviving a close call in Turn 6, where cars are visibly bottoming out on the track, Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso) ended 16^th on the timing screens, while his team mate Sebastien Buemi did not record a timed lap.

Heikki Kovalainen (Lotus) was fastest driver of the new teams followed by team mate Jarno Trulli, 18th and 19th fastest respectively, the pair over 5 seconds off the pace set by Rosberg.

A second down on the Lotus duo was Timo Glock (Virgin Racing) despite only managing three laps in total. His team mate managed to rack up a handy 21 laps and ended 21st on the timing sheets. Virgin summed up their frustration on Twitter: “Like most sessions, that was a bit of a mixed bag. The car is looking really good, lots of promise but we are missing testing time.”

Good news for Hispania Racing was that Bruno Senna managed to go out and do 17 laps, albeit a whopping 11.5 seconds off the pace of the frontrunners.

The only driver not to circulate all day was Indian rookie Karun Chadhok as he was forced to sit out yet another session as Hispania Racing struggled to get his car ready. Chandhok said of his misfortune, “We have had a lot of problems, we can’t seem to get the clutch and gearbox working. I don’t think we are going to get out which is really quite disappointing. It’s such a shame for the mechanics they have worked all night without any sleep – so I feel for them. It’s some sort of electronic or hydraulic issue – it’s not mechanical. It’s frustrating to be honest but I will try and keep my chin up. It’s a very difficult first day in F1 for me.”

Free Practice 2 best lap times