“Sandbagging” speculation as Lewis Hamilton outpaces Max Verstappen in Bahrain
Which cars are "sandbagging" ahead of qua♑lifying at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix?
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton’s impressive pace compared to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen🔯 on Thursday꧂ in Bahrain comes amid a warning about “sandbagging”.
Hamilton topped the timesheets in a Mercedes 1-2 in the second practice session at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could only manage P6 in FP2 but the true potential of every car on♍ the grid may still be a mystery, a♏head of qualifying.
Verstappen was +0.477 off 🐽Hamilton’s top time of 1:30.374 - only slightly ahead of Haas’ Nicoﷺ Hulkenberg.
Damon Hill reacted on Sky Sports: “The Red Bull is not one te🌃nth quicker than the Haas!
“Exciting, fantastic. I do think there is ღsomething in this.
“I think you haveꦅ to take a lot of fuel out for Max to b൩e a lot quicker than the Mercedes.
“E๊veryone wants to show what they are capable of doing.
“They are all sandbagging a bit!
“I thought the Mercedes looked nice. It’s ꦦnot jittering around. I th🔜ink they’ve done some work on their set-up.”
Naomi Schiff added: “Is 🐽that realistic or not? We still don’t know.
“Toto Wolff used some c🌺olourful language in the team principals’ press conference to descriꦕbe when things will be more realistic - and that’s in qualifying.
“But it’s already positive news. We saw in testing that Lewis had a strong race run and now we’ve seen him do a q🤪uick qualy run.
“It’s 𒆙looking positive for Mercedes and also for Aston Martin.
“They were quickest on the mediums in FP1 and were best of the🔯 rest in FP2.”
Mercedes entered the first day of practice in Bahrain with George Russell warning that old ‘bouncing’ problems may be rearing their ugly head again in theꦬ new W15.
“That’s been their issue for the past two years,” Schiff s🅠aid.
“Althoug🐷h they had a car with potential, when th🍷ey ran it at the optimum window, it generated bouncing.
“It has bec꧒ome better, but it’s a lot more stable.
“That✃ was the issue that Lando Norris had [in FP2].
“The❀ car is nervous especi🙈ally in these windy conditions.
“You want a car that is predictable, and “[Mercꦛedes] seem to have one that is quite stable.”
Hill, who watched 📖Hamilton top FP2 from inside the Mercedes hospitality, said: “They are all very calm about it. It’s lovely to see that name back up there.”
Schiff said about the unusual results on Thursday: “The pecking order is changing. The RBไs are quick, Stake moved forward.
“It is tight and🍸 you have to get it right to make a difference.”
But the below-par performance of Red Bull in the new RB20 (Sergio Perez was 10th) was unexpectedly significant and𝓰 raised questions about whether they are hiding their true performance until Friday.
Even if so, Me🐭rced♚es’ optimistic day is a fair reflection of their improvement, Schiff believes.
“We’reౠ not sure, we’re not 100% sure,” she said of e𒀰very car’s true pace.
“But we can look at tendencies to s🉐ee that there are teams who have taken a step forwards.
“And Mercedes are one of those.
“That, w🌃e can read into. Whether Red Bull are where they are, right now? We don’t 🍷know yet.”
Hill backed Hamilton and Russell.
“I’m goiಌng to put my money where my mouth is,” hꦺe said.
“That Mercedes loo♛ks good. There is something that I liked about how that car looked on track.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports f🌼or a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
