'Clear Mercedes Are Going To Be In Fight': Sainz And Leclerc React After Surprising FP2
F1Friday, 01 March 2024 at 10:30
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc shared their immediate feelings after the end of the FP2 session, which was dominated by two Mercedes drivers.
The FP2 session at the Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday, the 29th, was the most representative of the conditions we will see in qualifying and the race.
Both race and qualifying take place in the evening when the sun sets and the track temperature starts to fall, which happened in FP2. FP1 and FP3 were both scheduled for the afternoon when the track temperature was still high.
All the teams used this opportunity to go for at least one qualifying run, and to everyone's surprise, Mercedes drivers came out on top, with Lewis Hamilton taking P1 and George Russell taking P2.
Ferrari drivers, who were considered until now as the only possible challenger for Red Bull, finished in P4 and P9. While FP2 times do not represent the real pace of all cars, it still showed Mercedes might be much quicker than initially expected. Carlos Sainz told the media:
"It just shows you can never look into testing, because people tend to not show all their cards, and it's clear Mercedes are going to be in the fight."
The Spanish driver now suggested Ferrari isn't going to be the only one that might come close to Red Bull. Mercedes also beat Max Verstappen, who finished almost half a second behind. On the other hand, Sainz expects to see a faster Red Bull during qualification and race.
"Red Bull in the long run were a lot quicker than in the short run, so I expect them to be also stronger tomorrow and Sunday."
Sainz's teammate Charles Leclerc added he was surprised by the pace that Silver Arros showed on Thursday but also pointed out Mercedes might have been running on lower fuel levels, which would make their cars faster. He said:
"Mercedes look strong, which is a bit of a surprise. But we don't know which fuel [level] they were running, so I think we'll have all our answers tomorrow."
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