Listen to this article Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished down in fourth and ninth place respectively. In the only representative practice session of the weekend given its evening setting, the field headed out in unusually cool temperatures – 17°C air temperature – with a strong headwind blowing down the main straight at the Sakhir venue. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was the first driver to head out, running the yellow-walled medium tyres that all drivers bar McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo used for their initial FP2 laps. Magnussen duly set the first place benchmark at 1m34.572s, which was soon beaten by Carlos Sainz as the Ferrari driver followed Magnussen through during the early running. But Leclerc, running shortly behind his teammate, posted a 1m33.121s that stood as the top time until nearly the end of the opening 30 minutes of the one-hour session. Hamilton and the Red Bull drivers were the last drivers to appear on the mediums, with the Mercedes driver having to wait in his garage as his team finalised last minute set-up changes that included switching him to the floor specification that teammate Russell used in FP1 earlier on Friday afternoon. Hamilton complained his car was “still bouncing a lot” even with that switch and he also had a big lock-up on his opening flying lap on the mediums that sent him deep and nearly off track at the exit of the first corner. He langui …

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