Ahead of the green light the air temperature is 35 degrees C, while the track temperature is 48 degrees.
In terms of updates, McLaren has a new Front Corner featuring a new Front Brake Duct Winglet the geometry of which has been developed for better flow conditioning, resulting in an improvement of overall aerodynamic performance.
Ferrari has new Floor Fences, Floor Body, Floor Edge, Diffuser and Rear Wing. The majority of these are not circuit specific, the floor package features updated front floor / fences targeting an improvement of the losses travelling downstream. The reshaped boat and tunnel expansion have been subsequently re-optimized, together with the floor edge loading and vorticity shedding into the diffuse. As for the floor, this upgrade is also not event specific and is aimed at a minor improvement of car aerodynamic efficiency.
Red Bull has new Front Wing and Cooling Louvres. By extending the chord, the front wing load potential is lifted giving more scope to attain the targeted aero-balance with the suite of rear wings available. While the forecast ambient conditions have necessitated deployment of the wider louvre panels to give the car sufficient cooling capacity.
Haas has a new Coke/Engine Cover featuring a wider engine cover centre exit which has been enlarged to allow more heat expulsion. This is an option which will only be used in case specific requirement says the American team.
As for reserve drivers, there are no less than 6 - count 'em, six!!! - on duty, with Ayumu Iwasa at Red Bull, Dino Beganovic at Ferrari, Fred Vesti at Mercedes, Felipe Drugovich at Aston Martin, Ryo Hirakawa at Haas and Luke Browning at Williams.
The good news is that F1 has announced... a new official pasta partner.
The lights go green and Iwasa leads the way followed by Browning, Hirakawa, Ocon, Bortoleto and Lawson.
As more drivers head out it is the hards and mediums that are in use.
Of the first wave, Ocon is quickest (36.579), ahead of Hamilton, Tsunoda, Antonelli and Lawson.
"The car is pulling a lot on the straight, like left to right," reports Ocon.
A 36.674 sees Norris go top on the mediums.
"I've got an issue," says Antonelli. "No power," he adds.
Albon goes second with a 35.844, ahead of Ocon, Gasly, Piastri and Hamilton.
In eighth, Hirakawa is the quickest of the reserves, as Norris consolidates his top spot with a 35.249. Browning is the only driver yet to post a time.
"Feels like the car is not working at all, but it's probably the grip of the tyres," says Hamilton.
"Shocking," replies Lawson when asked about balance.
"There's no grip out here at all," says Piastri.
As is the case with all night races, this session, along with FP3, is pretty much redundant, so what better time to comply with the rules by running a reserve driver.
Much activity in the Mercedes garage where Antonelli has a water leak, or rather his car has.
Browning finally posts a time but it is clearly only exploratory as it is 10s off the pace.
"It feels horrendous, mate," says Hamilton, as he declines the offer of another lap and opts to pit instead.
Hulkenberg goes fifth and Tsunoda seventh, while Doohan goes ninth ahead of Stroll and Lawson.
"The throttle is still not reacting somehow," reports Tsunoda. "It is very lazy, somehow."
Still on mediums, Albon goes quickest with a 35.180, just 0.069s up on Norris.
Lawson improves to seventh, ahead of Tsunoda, as Iwasa goes 11th with a 36.801.
With 32 minutes remaining, Bortoleto is the first driver to switch to softs.
"It's much, much warmer than it will be so it is unrepresentative," says James Vowles when asked why Sainz isn't in his car, "and he has done many hundreds of kilometres around here. It's always painful, but it is less painful (to run a reserve driver) here."
Vesti goes third (35.325) on the mediums as Bortoleto posts a 34.628 on the red-banded rubber.
Piastri, Hulkenberg and Hirakawa make the switch to softs.
Having gone quickest with a 34.262, Hulkenberg has a big, big lock-up in Turn 10 as more drivers switch to the softs.
Quickest in S2, Piastri runs wide in the final corner and can only manage second with a 35.408.
In the Mercedes garage, a whole team of mechanics is struggling to remove the rear end of Antonelli's car away. Indeed, it is virtually a tug-of-war between those mechanics at the front of the car and those at the rear.
Doohan goes third with a 34.396 as Tsunoda improves to fourth.
Albon posts a 33.928 but is immediately leapfrogged by Gasly (33.442), the Frenchman quickest in all three sectors.
An incident whereby Albon was released into the path of Tsunoda has been noted.
Ocon goes third with a 34.184 as Stroll goes eleventh, Aston Martin still clearly struggling.
"Wow, that was close," says Drugovich after the Williams pair almost collide, Browning going slowly on the racing line as Albon was on a flyer. Close indeed.
Norris goes quickest with a 33.204 as Lawson goes seventh ahead of Tsunoda.
A big lock-up for Hamilton as he enters the pitlane, the Ferrari driver is currently 15th and yet to try the softs.
Despite 13 laps, Browning remains 12.8s off the pace.
"When I don't know what the brakes are doing, it's nice to do something," says Albon.
Hamilton and Beganovic head out on softs.
Drugovich goes 13th only marginally of Stroll's pace.
Beganovic goes 12th as Hamilton improves to third with a 33.800.
Browning finally posts a representative time, the Briton crossing the line at 34.885 to go 13th.
"I've lost power," says a clearly frustrated Albon, the front-right of his car smothered in flo-vis.
A big lock-up for Hadjar who is currently 12th.
The session ends. Norris is quickest, ahead of Gasly, Hamilton, Albon, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Doohan, Lawson, Tsunoda and Piastri.
Bortoleto is eleventh, ahead of Hadjar, Browning, Beganovic, Stroll, Drugovich, Hirakawa, Vesti, Iwasa and Antonelli.
An interesting if unrepresentative session, which will both the stewards and most of the teams kept busy during the break. While six of the teams have to prepare the cars for their regular drivers, the stewards have two incidents to investigate, both involving Williams drivers.
Check out our Friday gallery from Manama here.
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