“Sandbagging” speculation as Lewis Hamilton outpaces Max Verstappen in Bahrain
Which cars are "sandbagging" ahead of quaꦆlifying 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 warning aboutꩵ “🌞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 V𝓀erstappen could only manage P6 in FP2 but the true potential of every car on the grid may still be a mystery, ahead of qualifying.
Verstappen was +0.477 off ꧙Hamilton’s top time of 1:30.374 - only slightly ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.
Damon Hill reac♊ted on Sky Sports: “The Red Bull is not one tenth quicker than🎶 the Haas!
“Exciting, fantastic. I do think th﷽ere is something in🌌 this.
“I think you have꧒ to tak🔯e a lot of fuel out for Max to be a lot quicker than the Mercedes.
“Eve🌟ryone wants to show what they are capable of 🐈doing.
“They are all sandbagging a bit!
“I thought the Mercedes looked nice. It’s not ꦕjittering around. I think they’ve done some work on their set-up.”
Naomi Schiff added: “I꧒s that realistic or not? We still don’t know.
“Toto Wolff used some colourful language in the team prin🃏cipals’ press conference to describe when things will be more realistic - and t💟hat’s in qualifying.
“But it’s already positive 𒐪news. We saw in testing that Lewis had a strong race run and now we’ve se♒en him do a quick qualy run.
“It’s looking po🔯sitive for Mercedes and also for Aston Martin.
“They were quickest on the medi♚ums🍌 in FP1 and were best of the rest in FP2.”
Mercedes entered the first day of practice in Bahrai🌞n with George Russell warning that old ‘bouncing’ problems may be rearing their ugly head again in the new W15.
“That’ꦯs been their issue for the past two years,” S🐭chiff said.
“Altho😼ugh they had a car with potential, when they ran it at the optimum window, it generated bouncing.
“I꧑t has become better, but it’s a lot more stable.
“That was the issue that Lan𒊎do Norris♛ had [in FP2].
“T🍎he car is nervous especially in t𓄧hese windy conditions.
“You want a car that is predictable, and “[Mercedes] seem t🍌o have one that is quite stab🌃le.”
Hill, who watched Hamilton top FP2 from inside the Mercedes hospitality, said: “They are all very c🌜alm about it. It’s lovely to see that name back up there.”
Schiff said about the unusual results on Thursd𝕴ay: “The pecking order is changing. The RBs 𒉰are quick, Stake moved forward.
“It is tight and you have to get it right to make a dꦍifference.”
But the below-par performance oꦉf Red Bull in the new RB20 (Sergio Perez was 10th) was unexpectedly significant and raised questions about whether they are hiding their true performance until Friday.
Even if so,♍ Mercedes’ optimistic day is a fair reflection of their improv𓃲ement, Schiff believes.
“We’re not sure, we’re not 100% sure,” s༺he sai♛d of every car’s true pace.
“But w🃏e can look at tendencies to see that there are teams who have taken a st🐷ep forwards.
“And Mercedes are one of those.
“That, we can read into. Whether Red B🌠ull are where they are, right now? We don’t know yet.”
Hill backed Hamilton and Russell.
“I’m going to put my▨ money where my m🐈outh is,” he said.
“That Mercedes look🅺s good. There is something that I 🌞liked about how that car looked on track.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade cove𒈔ring everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
