The new era of F1 with ground effects car has arrived, which looks set to tighten up the competitive order and provide plenty of surprises up and down the grid.
Defending F1 world champion Verstappen went fastest in FP2 with a 1m31.936s for Red Bull, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.087s, with his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr taking third place to cap off a similarly impressive showing for Ferrari.
George Russell ended the second practice session in fourth for Mercedes, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton down in ninth place at the end of Friday’s running, with the seven-time F1 world champion fearing his team faced “much bigger problems” than its 2021 struggles.
Nico Hulkenberg made a decent start at Aston Martin, standing in for Sebastian Vettel who was ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this week, as he ended Friday in 17th place overall but just 0.103s off team-mate Lance Stroll.
Elsewhere, Daniel Ricciardo was back in action for McLaren after he missed the Bahrain F1 test due to his own COVID-19 positive test, and completed Friday down in 18th place having lost a chunk of running time due to a water pressure problem.
What time does qualifying start for the Bahrain Grand Prix?
Qualifying for the Bahrain GP starts at 6pm local time (3pm GMT), using the regular Q1, Q2 and Q3 knockout session format.
Date: Saturday 19th March 2022
Start time: 6pm local time - 3pm GMT
How can I watch Formula 1?
In the United Kingdom Formula 1 is only broadcast live on Sky Sports, with highlights shown on Channel 4 several hours after the race has finished. Live streaming through NOW is also available in the UK.
Sky Sports F1, which broadcasts the F1 races, can be added as part of the Sky Sports channels which costs £20 a month for new customers. Sky Sports can also be accessed through NOW with a one-off day payment of £11.98p or a month membership of £33.99p per month.
Fans wanting to watch the race for free will have to wait until the evening of Saturday (qualifying) or Sunday (race) to see the highlights on Channel 4.
How can I watch qualifying?
In the United Kingdom every F1 practice, qualifying and race is broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, with Bahrain GP qualifying coverage starting at 2pm GMT. Qualifying will also be shown on Sky Sports Main Event.
· Channel: Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event
· Start time: 2:00pm GMT 19th March 2022
Autosport will be running a live text coverage of qualifying here.
When can I watch the highlights of Bahrain GP qualifying?
In the United Kingdom Channel 4 is broadcasting highlights of qualifying for the Bahrain GP at 7:30pm GMT on Saturday. The full programme will run for 90 minutes, covering both qualifying and wrapping up the major talking points of the race weekend so far.
For the entire 2022 F1 season, Channel 4 will broadcast highlights of every qualifying and race of each event. The highlights will also be available on Channel 4’s on demand catch up services.
· Channel: Channel 4
· Start time: 7:30pm GMT 19th March 2022
Will Bahrain GP qualifying be on the radio?
Live radio coverage of every practice, qualifying and race for the 2022 F1 season will be available on the BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC 5 Live Sports Extra or via the BBC Sport website.
Coverage of Bahrain GP qualifying will start at 2:55pm GMT on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra and the BBC Sounds app.
What's the weather forecast for qualifying at the Bahrain International Circuit?
Dry, warm and clear weather is forecast for Saturday evening for the start of qualifying at the Bahrain international Circuit. The temperature is set to be 21 degrees Celsius at the start of qualifying.
F1 Bahrain Grand Prix free practice 2 results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1'31.936 | |
| 2 |  Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1'32.023 | 0.087 |
| 3 |  Carlos Sainz Jr | Ferrari | 1'32.520 | 0.584 |
| 4 |  George Russell | Mercedes | 1'32.529 | 0.593 |
| 5 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1'32.877 | 0.941 |
| 6 |  Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | 1'32.951 | 1.015 |
| 7 |  Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1'32.958 | 1.022 |
| 8 |  Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1'33.085 | 1.149 |
| 9 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1'33.144 | 1.208 |
| 10 |  Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1'33.183 | 1.247 |
| 11 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1'33.280 | 1.344 |
| 12 |  Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1'33.360 | 1.424 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1'33.621 | 1.685 |
| 14 |  Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1'33.789 | 1.853 |
| 15 |  Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1'33.953 | 2.017 |
| 16 |  Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1'33.958 | 2.022 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Aston Martin | 1'34.061 | 2.125 |
| 18 |  Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1'34.166 | 2.230 |
| 19 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1'34.486 | 2.550 |
| 20 |  Alex Albon | Williams | 1'34.735 | 2.799 |
| View full results | ||||
F1 Bahrain Grand Prix free practice 1 results
| Cla | Driver | Chassis | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1'34.193 | |
| 2 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1'34.557 | 0.364 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz Jr | Ferrari | 1'34.611 | 0.418 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1'34.629 | 0.436 |
| 5 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1'34.742 | 0.549 |
| 6 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1'34.814 | 0.621 |
| 7 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1'34.943 | 0.750 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | 1'35.000 | 0.807 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | 1'35.028 | 0.835 |
| 10 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 1'35.050 | 0.857 |
| 11 | Guanyu Zhou | Alfa Romeo | 1'35.053 | 0.860 |
| 12 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1'35.151 | 0.958 |
| 13 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | 1'35.644 | 1.451 |
| 14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Aston Martin | 1'35.815 | 1.622 |
| 15 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1'35.923 | 1.730 |
| 16 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1'36.304 | 2.111 |
| 17 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | 1'36.402 | 2.209 |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | 1'36.536 | 2.343 |
| 19 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1'36.804 | 2.611 |
| 20 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | ||
| View full results | ||||
