Charles Leclerc leads Hadjar in second practice at Sepang

Charles Leclerc put Ferrari at the top of the timesheets in Friday's second practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, finishing 0.099 seconds ahead of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar. BBC Sport reported that McLaren's Lando Norris was third, 0.137 seconds behind Leclerc, with Max Verstappen fourth at Sepang.

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The order came with an important qualification: neither Red Bull driver completed a qualifying-simulation run on soft tyres. BBC Sport also described Ferrari's race-simulation running as encouraging, but noted that teams were split between soft and medium compounds. Those differing programmes limited direct comparisons of both single-lap speed and longer-run performance.

Mercedes, running a major upgrade, finished seventh and eighth with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Liam Lawson was ninth for Racing Bulls and Pierre Gasly tenth for Alpine. The positions represented the practice classification, with the differing approaches leaving the competitive picture unresolved.

Earlier in the day, Verstappen had led an uninterrupted opening session with a lap of one minute 37.520 seconds, according to Autosport. Russell finished 0.383 seconds behind, while Hadjar was third on 1:38.303. Leclerc took fourth ahead of Antonelli and Lewis Hamilton. McLaren had a quieter start, with Oscar Piastri and Norris ending that session in 11th and 12th respectively.

Autosport reported that teams initially favoured medium tyres in opening practice, while both Red Bulls began on softs. More drivers switched to the softer compound later before attention returned to other testing programmes. The session took place in hot, humid conditions, with temperatures reaching 32C. It marked Formula 1's return to Sepang after nine years; Verstappen had won the previous race there in 2017. Malaysia is hosting the Bahrain event because of the Middle East conflict.

Grid penalties will also affect the weekend. BBC Sport reported that Hadjar faces a five-place drop for exceeding permitted engine-component allocations. Racing Bulls' Arvid Lindblad and Alpine's Franco Colapinto are due to start at the back. Colapinto has a 10-place engine penalty alongside a five-place sanction for causing a restart crash in Azerbaijan.