“Sandbagging” speculation as Lewis Hamilton outpaces Max Verstappen in Bahrain
Which cars are "sandbagging" ahead of qualifying at 🔜t𓆉he 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 about “sandbagging”.
Hamilton topped the timesheets in a Mercedes 1-2 in the second practice session at the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Re💖d Bull’s Max Verstappen 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 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 tenꩵth quicker than the Haas!
“Exciting, fantastic. I do think there is something in🏅 this.
“I think you have to take a lot of fue☂l out for Max to be a lot quicker than the M🍸ercedes.
“Everyone wants to show ꧂what they are capable of doing.
“They are all sandbagging a bit!
“I thought the Mercede𝕴s looked nice. It’s not jittering around. I think they’ve done some work on the🐬ir set-up.”
Naomi Schiff added: “I﷽s that realistic or not? We still don’t know.
“Toto Wolff used some colour🥃ful language in the team principals’ press conference to describe 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 an💟d also for Aston Martin.
“They were quickest on the mediums in FP1 and were best of the r🔯est 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 issue꧒ for the past two years,”🌌 Schiff said.
“Although they had a car with potential, when they ran it at the optimum window, it generated bouncღing.
“I💫t has become better, but it’s a lot more stable.
“That was the issue that Lando Nඣorris had [in FP🌌2].
“The car๊ is nervous especially in these windy conditions.
“You want a car that is predictable, and “[𝐆Mercedes] seem to hav☂e one that is quite stable.”
Hill, wh🦩o watched Hamilton top FP2 from inside the Mercedes hospitality, said: “T🌃hey 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 forward.
“It is 🌃tight and you have to get it right to make a difference.”
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 their true performance until Friday.
Even if so, Mercedes’ optimistic day is a fair reflection of their improvement,🦹 Schiff believes.
“We’re not sure, we’re not 100% sure,” she said of every car’🔯s true pace.
“ཧBut we can look at tendencies to see that there are teams who have taken a step forwards.
“And Mercedes are one of those.
“That, we can read into. Whether Red Bull are wh💧ere they are, 𒐪right now? We don’t know yet.”
Hill backed Hamilton and Russell.
“I’m g▨oing to put my money where my mou✃th is,” he said.
“That Mercedes l𝄹ooks good. There is something that I liked about how that car looked on track.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports fo🔯r a decade covཧering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
