The conditions for FP2 were much more representative than those seen in pre-season testing in Bahrain and given that each driver completed a longer run race simulation, we have our first real insight into each team’s race pace of the year.

McLaren: Average Lap Time: 1:22.047 | Medium Tyres

McLaren entered this weekend as the favourites when it comes to race pace off the back of Norris’ simulated grand prix on day 2 of testing. But that was in flattering, cooler conditions so today’s warmer running was always going to be more of a tell as to their true place in the competitive order.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they still appear at the top of the ranking. Lando Norris also topped the driver’s ranking, with an average lap time over his nine laps on the used medium tyre being the fastest of all. Piastri’s ten consecutive laps were an average of 0.253s away from his team mate’s on equally aged medium tyres.

Even so, Norris has emphasised that they still have work to do on one lap, low fuel pace but Piastri was more positive, saying “the underlying pace seems strong”. They are keeping an eye on the other top three teams though, and they are right to…

Ferrari: Delta to Fastest: 0.037s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.084 | Medium Tyres 

Ferrari are incredibly closely matched to McLaren over their combined total of 22 laps from Leclerc and Hamilton. Though they had been further off the pace in testing, the Scuderia have proved themselves as front runners once again over longer runs on the medium tyres. What’s also impressive is how quickly Lewis Hamilton has near-matched the pace of his new teammate.

Leclerc’s average lap time was 1:22.041 while Hamilton’s was 1:22.128 – a gap of just under a tenth between the pair. But Hamilton feels there’s still more to come, saying “I’ve got some pace to find. I know where to find it. It’s just about going out there and doing it and just building.”

Mercedes: Delta to Fastest: 0.078s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.125 | Hard Tyres

Mercedes appear to be right on the pace of Ferrari and McLaren based on this early evidence, but their laps were set on the hard tyres perhaps indicating there may still be more to come…

Russell’s average race pace was second fastest of the pack while Antonelli’s mean lap time was within four tenths of Russell, no mean feat for the rookie who appeared to struggle more with tyre management over his longer runs of pre-season testing.

Antonelli commented that this long run had given them “a strong platform for the rest of the weekend” but he felt that he still had work to do on his single lap pace and getting the tyres in the correct window to unlock the laptime.

This is a conclusion supported by Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, who said “we’ve got some work to do on improving our single lap performance on the soft compound ahead of qualifying”.

Williams: Delta to Fastest: 0.565s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.613 | Medium Tyres

Undoubtedly the performers of the day, Williams have established themselves as a threat not only for race pace but also over single laps.

Their combined longer run lap pace is over five tenths off the benchmark set by McLaren, but looks to be competitive versus the other midfield teams. Albon’s medium tyre run was shorter comparatively than others in the field at just seven laps, but his pace over these laps put him third fastest of the drivers. While Sainz was further off Albon’s pace, his run was much longer and more consistent at eleven consecutive laps, so may have been more representative of the real stint pace of the FW47.

Racing Bulls: Delta to Fastest: 0.597s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.644 | Medium Tyres

Perhaps surprisingly, Racing Bulls rank faster than their sister team Red Bull Racing for long run pace. Hadjar and Tsunoda’s combined average lap time puts them just shy of six tenths off McLaren, but 0.073s off Red Bull. 

Rookie Isack Hadjar’s average lap time was just over one tenth away from that of his experienced teammate Yuki Tsunoda, but both drivers praised a good day with a comfortable car. “I felt confident in both long and short runs” said Hadjar, while Tsunoda felt “there’s nothing wrong outstanding with the balance” which will set them up well for both one lap and long run pace.

Red Bull Racing: Delta to Fastest: 0.670s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.718 | Medium Tyres

Red Bull Racing’s place in the race pace ranking as behind Williams and Racing Bulls is surprising, but could be due to run plan differences between Verstappen and Lawson impacting their combined average.

Verstappen completed just seven consecutive laps with pace ranging from 1:21.506 to 1:23.007, while Lawson completed nine total laps all in the 1:23s range. Lawson’s tyres were three laps older than his team mate’s on starting their medium tyre stints, but beyond a tyre advantage we know that there’s often a ‘Verstappen-effect’ on the pace that can be extracted from their cars.

The reigning drivers’ champion was open about his belief that Red Bull would not win this weekend’s race before the on track running even began, but today said the lack of pace will be “hard to fix” in the absence of any major balance problems.

“We just have to make sure that we find a bit more pace, but at the moment we are definitely lacking a bit to fight up front,” he said. Lawson’s conclusions matched those of Verstappen – “[I’m] comfortable [in the car] – just too slow”, he said.

“Day one, on a new track, we were expecting to have some work to do, but probably not this much. We’ll work on it overnight and then try and improve it for tomorrow.”

Aston Martin: Delta to Fastest: 0.686s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.734 | Medium Tyres

Aston Martin rank P7 for race pace from FP2, after “a few experiments” for them over the morning’s running according to their team principal Andy Cowell, evidenced by their use of flo-vis paint in FP1.

Come the race stint simulations though and both Stroll and Alonso were evenly matched on equally used medium tyre sets – with just 0.041s separating their average lap times. Although this, and their overall ranking, pointed to a more positive picture than pre-season testing had painted, both Alonso and Stroll were tight-lipped about their feeling in the car.

“We’re continuing to learn about the AMR25, and we tried a few different things today with the setup to inform our direction for the rest of the weekend,” said Alonso. While Stroll said “it’s nice to be inside the top 10”.

Alpine: Delta to Fastest: 0.915s | Average Lap Time: 1:22.962 | Soft/Medium Tyres

Despite looking to have promising pace over testing, Alpine were over nine tenths off the mark at the Albert Park circuit. Gasly was the only driver in the field to use the soft, C5 compound for a race stint simulation, completing nine laps. He did appear to suffer a lap time increase as his stint advanced however, in line with Pirelli’s assessment of a more significant drop off for the C5 than C4 or C3. Due to this, Doohan’s medium run was quicker than Gasly’s soft run despite the Australian driver’s tyres being 11 laps old as he began his long run.

Haas: Delta to Fastest: 1.180s | Average Lap Time: 1:23.227 | Medium Tyres

Following a day ending crash for Ollie Bearman in FP1, Haas’ race running was left to be completed by Ocon alone. He completed nine laps on a used medium tyre which saw him rank over a second off the pace set by McLaren, in what wasn’t the “smoothest day” for the team.

“I wasn’t happy with the balance and how the car felt – we made a step between FP1 and FP2 – but we need more, so hopefully we can do that in FP3 and build on from there,” Ocon said.

Kick Sauber: Delta to Fastest: 1.405s | Average Lap Time: 1:23.452 | Medium Tyres

Kick Sauber are entering this year with the most work to do of any team, with over a 1.4 seconds to find to McLaren’s bench mark or one second if they want to be racing at the pace of the mid-field leaders.

Bortoleto’s nine lap medium stint saw significant lap time variation which meant he ranked slowest of all the drivers on average, and while Hulkenberg also suffered some inconsistency, his average lap time was over 1.5s quicker than his rookie team mate’s.

The team look to have been trying out different setups through FP2 to gather data with the aim of bringing it all together in FP3 tomorrow. Bortoleto praised a “valuable day for learning about the car and the track conditions” perhaps pointing to there being more pace to come.