“Sandbagging” speculation as Lewis Hamilton outpaces Max Verstappen in Bahrain
Which cars are ♓"sဣandbagging" ahead of qualifying at the 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 Thursday in Bahrain comes amid a warninꦏg 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 FP🐻2 but the true potential of every car on the grid may still be a mystery, ahead of qualifying.
Verstappen was +0.477 offﷺ Hamilton’s top time of 1:30.374 - only slightly ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.
Damon Hill reacted on Sky Sports: “The Red Bull is not 🃏one tenth quicker th🌸an the Haas!
“Exciting, fa꧂ntastic. I do th𒐪ink there is something in this.
“I think you have ဣto take a lot of fuel out for Max to be a lot quicker than th꧅e Mercedes.
“Everyone 🌠wants to show what they are cap💖able of doing.
“They are all sandbagging a bit!
“I thought the Mercedes looked nice. It’s not jittering around. I think they’ve done some work on their set-u♑p.”
Naomi Schiff added: “Is that realistic o🍬r not? We still don’t know.
“Toto Wolff used some colourful language in the team principals’ press conference to describe w💝hen things will be more realistic - and that’s in qualifying.
“But it’s already positive news. We saw in teꩲsting 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 Martin𓂃.
“They were qu൲ickest on the mediums in🐻 FP1 and were best of the rest in FP2.”
Mercedes entered the first day of practice in Bahrain with Georg🎀e Russell warning that old ‘bouncing’ problems may be rearing their ugly head again in the new W15.
“That’s been th🔴eir issue for th🌺e past two years,” Schiff said.
“Alth🦩ough they had a car with potential, ꧑when they ran it at the optimum window, it generated bouncing.
“It has become betteꦫr, but it’s a lot more stable.
“That was the issue that La🍷ndo Norris had [in FP2].
“The car is nervous especially 🍸in these windy conditions.
“You want a car that is predictabওle, and “[Mercedes] 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.”
S💝chiff said about the unusual results on Thursday: “The pecking order is changing. The RBs are quick, St𝐆ake moved forward.
“It is tight and you have to get it right to make a differ🍬ence.”
But the below-par performance of Red Bull in the new RB20 (Sergio Perez was 10th) was unexpectedly significant and raised questions about whether they are hiding thei♌r true performance until Friday.
Even if so, Mercede🌠s’ optimistic day is a fair reflection of their improvemeܫnt, Schiff believes.
“We’re not sure, we’re not 100% sure,” she said of every car’s true pa♋ce.
“But we can look at tendencies to see ꧙that there are teams who have taken a ste🤪p forwards.
“And Mercedes are one of those.
“That, we can read into. Whether Red Bull are where they are, righ✨t now? We don’t know yet.”
Hill backed Hamilton and Russell.
“I’m going to put my money ♔where my mouth is,” he sai🍸d.
“That Mercedes looks good. There is something that I liked abo🌊ut how that car looked on track.ꦑ”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering🔴 everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
