“Sandbagging” speculation as Lewis Hamilton outpaces Max Verstappen in Bahrain
Which cars are "sandbagging" ahead of qualꦑifying at t💙he F1 Bahrain Grand Prix?
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton’s impressive pace compared to 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen on Thursd🐓ay 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 everyﷺ car on the grid may still be a mystery, ahead of qualifying.
Verstappen w♚as +0.477 off Hamilton’s top time of 1:30.374 - only sligh🎃tly ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.
Damon Hill reacted on Sky S🌟ports: “The Red Bull is not one tenth quicker than the Haas!
“Exciting, fantastic. I do think t൲here is something in this.
“I t🔯hink you have to take a lot of fuel out for Max to be a lot quicke♋r than the Mercedes.
“Everyone w🔴ants to show what they are capꦓable of doing.
“They are all sandbagging a bit!
“I thought the Mercedes looked nice. It’s not jittering around. I thin﷽k they’ve d𒀰one some work on their set-up.”
Naomi Schiff added: “Is that realistic𒅌 or not? We still don’t know.
“Toto Wolff used some colourful language in the team principals’ press conference to descꦛribe 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🅷 quick qualy run.
“It’s looking positive💦 for Mercedes and also for ✱Aston Martin.
“They were quickest on the mediums in FP1 and were best of thꦍe 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 the new W15.
“That’s been their issue for the past two yearsꦏ,” Schiff said.
“Although they had a car with potential, when they ran it at the optimum ꦇwindow, it generated bouncing.
“It has ꦛbecome better, but it’s a lot more stable.
🐼“That was the is൲sue that Lando Norris had [in FP2].
“The car is nervou♐s especially in these windy conditions.
“You want a car that is predictable, and “[Mercedes] seem to have on𝐆e 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 RBs are quick, Stake moved fo🦩rward.
“It is tight and you have to get it right to make♊ a dif﷽ference.”
But the below-par performance of Red Bull in the new RB20 (Sergio Pe💖rez was 10th) was unexpectedly signi𒁃ficant and raised questions about whether they are hiding their true performance until Friday.
Even if so, Mercedes’ optimistic day is a fair reflect🐼ion ofඣ their improvement, Schiff believes.
“We’re not sure, we’re not 100% sure,” she said of e🌳very car’s true pace.
“But we can look at tendencies to see that th꧟ere are teams who have taken a step for🧸wards.
“And Mercedes are one of those.
“That, wꦡe can read into. Whether Red Bull are where they are, right now? We don’t know yet.”
Hill backed Hamilton and Russell.
“I’m going to put my mone𝐆y where my mout🌸h is,” he said.
“That Mercedes looks good. There is something that 🐠I liked about how that car looked on tra꧑ck.”
James was a sports journalist at S🌄ky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
