Hamilton fastest in Bahrain both practice sessions
Albon crashes heavily
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Thanks so much for joining me for both free practice sessions today.
We saw Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in FP1 and FP2.
But what will tomorrow bring?
Well, if you get on the BBC Sport website at 10:30 GMT on Saturday there will be build up to FP3 which starts at 11:00 GMT.
Then that all important qualifying session starts at 14:00 GMT.
Join us for that too!
Another strong session from the Racing Point team.
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Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
Alexander Albon suffered a heavy crash in second practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix, leaving his Red Bull career hanging by a thread.
The British-Thai driver is trying to prove to Red Bull that he deserves to be kept on for 2021.
But his crash, in which he was uninjured, was the latest in a series of incidents that are undermining his case.
World champion Lewis Hamilton was fastest from Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
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Question 1 - Sebastian Vettel is the most successful F1 driver at the Bahrain GP, how many race wins does he have at this track?
Answer - four.
Question 2 - Who holds the lap record? (At the standard GP circuit.)
Answer - Pedro de la Rosa.
Question 3 - How long is the circuit in km?
Answer - 5.412km.
Huge congratulations to all those who got the answers right! There were lots of you too. Excellent knowledge!
Team principal, Christian Horner speaking to Sky Sports: "Frustrating, thankfully Alex is OK. There is a lot of superficial damage to the car and it will keep the guys busy. He has been released from the medical centre which is good news."
Alex Albon, speaking to Sky Sports: "I did back out (of the crash) but not enough, but it is one of those things. In FP1 the car was feeling OK and in FP2 we tried a few things but it didn't work out, we will see how it goes (tomorrow.)"
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Jeremiah says: This season 2020 is turning out to be special and bizarre. Like a red flag, courtesy of a dog that decides to have its own race on the track
Peter says: Great to see Seb has kept his sense of humour! Maybe, with the pressure off next year he can rediscover some of his mojo.
Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live
"Ferrari look like they are on the back foot, but Alex Albon's mechanics have the most work to do."
Ten to 20 after FP2
Well, I have the answer right here:
11. Ocon
12. Vettel
13. Sainz
14. Leclerc
15. Giovinazzi
16. Magnussen
17. Raikkonen
18. Latifi
19. Grosjean
20. Russell
The top 10 quickest times
It is that man, Lewis Hamilton who once again tops the timing-screens to set the fastest time in the final free practice session of the day.
He lapped a 1:28.971.
Are salary caps a good idea?
Rachel says: I find the discussion of the salary caps on sports people weird... Their careers are significantly shorter than everyone else, so for many, that salary has to last them for life.
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With only five minutes remaining to FP2 the top three are still Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas on the time-sheets.
Most bizarre red flags
Trevor says: We were testing at Thruxton a few years ago when the session was stopped because a deer was seen in the grounds of the circuit and had to be “shoo-ed” away.
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Jennie Gow
BBC Radio 5 live pit-lane reporter
"Red Bull have said that Alex Albon has gone to the medical centre as a precaution, the team say he is fine in himself."
You know that last post I did about the fact that not many drivers will be going out on the soft tyres at the moment..
Well Lewis Hamilton has just set the fastest time so far and has just whacked on a set of softs to lap a 1:28.971.
It looks like most of the drivers are done with the soft tyres so expecting a lot of long runs now.
I hope we get to hear the jingle on 5 live Sports Extra!
Looking good guys!
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Is a salary cap a good idea?
Martin says: Salary cap is difficult to police. As Hamilton says F1 owns driver image rights. Change that and sponsors etc will then just pay the drivers directly in addition to their salary. Instead of a chunk of the teams sponsorship cash. Net zero benefit from the cap.
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