» Mercedes thrash the field in Friday practice

Friday practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix belonged to the Mercedes AMG Petronas, with Lewis Hamilton backing up his FP1 effort with the fastest time in the Friday night practice session. with a 1:34.325 on the soft tyre, three-tenths of a second ahead of his team-mate Nico Rosberg.

As was the case last time out in Malaysia, the Silver Arrows were over a second faster that the rest of the field, with Fernando Alonso leading the charge in third.

The Mercedes pair were not only superior to the rest of the field on a flying lap, but also in higher fuel runs, which points to a one-two finish come Sunday providing they’re reliable.

Red Bull Racing found their feet and put in some more competitive lap times. Daniel Ricciardo ended the session fourth-fastest behind Alonso, while his team-mate Sebastian Vettel was three places back in seventh.

However, the fuel sensor issue popped up at Red Bull Racing again on Ricciardo’s car, causing headaches for them and other Renault teams – the issue seems to be unique to teams the French company’s power units.

The Ferraris, Force Indias and McLarens all hovered around the 1m35s bracket.

The session saw few incidents, with Max Chilton suffered a brake failure at Turn 4, triggering a high speed spin that left the Briton dumbfounded as to what had happened.

Turn 10 challenged all drivers, with many cars constantly sending smoke up into the night air from repeated lock ups.

Adrian Sutil and Marcus Ericsson both found themselves walking back to their garages after they suffered power unit failures.

2014 Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Results:

	Driver	Team / Entry	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:34.325		28
2.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W05	1:34.690	+ 0.365	31
3.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:35.360	+ 1.035	28
4.	Daniel Ricciardo	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:35.433	+ 1.108	28
5.	Felipe Massa	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:35.442	+ 1.117	13
6.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:35.528	+ 1.203	21
7.	Sebastian Vettel	Infiniti Red Bull Racing Renault RB10	1:35.606	+ 1.281	30
8.	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:35.640	+ 1.315	31
9.	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren Mercedes MP4-29	1:35.662	+ 1.337	22
10.	Sergio Pérez	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:35.802	+ 1.477	40
11.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Martini Racing Mercedes FW36	1:35.920	+ 1.595	9
12.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Renault STR9	1:35.972	+ 1.647	33
13.	Nico Hülkenberg	Force India Mercedes Mercedes VJM07	1:35.998	+ 1.673	18
14.	Kimi Räikkönen	Scuderia Ferrari F14T	1:36.366	+ 2.041	33
15.	Adrian Sutil	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:36.962	+ 2.637	13
16.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber F1 Team Ferrari C33	1:36.975	+ 2.650	35
17.	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:37.259	+ 2.934	25
18.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Team Renault E22	1:37.599	+ 3.274	23
19.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:37.800	+ 3.475	15
20.	Max Chilton	Marussia F1 Team Ferrari MR03	1:38.247	+ 3.922	10
21.	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:38.257	+ 3.932	33
22.	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham F1 Team Renault CT05	1:39.136	+ 4.811	30