Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

An eventful second free practice session saw Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas recording the fastest lap time of 1:36.276 - although that only told a fraction of the story.

The main talking point centred around Kimi Raikkonen, whose car caught fire towards the end of the session, but was quickly dealt with by marshals. The incident caused a red flag and a short pause in the session.

Having finished second in the day’s earlier practice, Bottas impressed once again, lapping the fastest inside the opening 30 minutes - a lead he held onto for the remainder of the session, wrapping up a successful day overall for the Finn.

The returning Lewis Hamilton endured something of a stop-start opening session after experiencing brake problems early on Friday, but the seven-time world champion looked more assured in the second qualifying session, finishing just over two-tenths of a second behind his Mercedes stable mate.

The seven-time champion, who missed last weekend’s Sakhir Grand Prix after testing positive for Covid-19, admitted he needed a few laps to settle in again.

“I was very happy and grateful to be back out there and to finish the season feeling strong,” he said.

“I felt super-excited like it was my first day back at school.

“It took a while in the first session to get used to it again, but the second was better so not too bad overall... We got most of our stuff done.” Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen had finished first on the timesheet in FP1, and while the Dutchman was unable to replicate that finish second time around, he finished a fraction behind Hamilton, 0.776 seconds off the pace set by Bottas.

Having been forced out of FP1 due to fuel pressure issues, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo returned to complete FP2, finishing ninth with a time of 1:37.508 while Sergio Perez, the winner of last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix, was seventh after recording a time of 1:37.506. Perez will start at the back of the grid on Sunday, however, following a change of engine components after his Sakhir victory.