Leclerc leads FP2 as Bahrain GP order remains unclear

Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sepang, leading Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar by 0.099 seconds as Friday’s running left the competitive order unresolved. Lando Norris was third for McLaren, while Max Verstappen’s one-lap pace and Mercedes’ qualifying potential remained difficult to assess. Leclerc’s Ferrari completed the session with a lap of 1 minute, 37.528 seconds on soft tyres. Hadjar was close behind, and Norris placed McLaren among the leading teams after it compared different rear-wing configurations in the first session. Oscar Piastri finished sixth and Lewis Hamilton fifth. Verstappen, who had set the fastest time in first practice with a 1:37.520, did not use soft tyres in FP2. He stayed on medium tyres for longer runs, leaving his pace over a single qualifying-style lap untested in the session. Hadjar’s second place offered another indication of Red Bull’s speed, though the practice times alone did not establish how the team would compare with Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes. Mercedes also lacked a representative soft-tyre comparison.