CAN GASLY REMAIN ON TOP? Welcome to Eurosport's live text commentary of the second free practice session ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix. Pierre Gasly set the pace in the first free practice session earlier on, can he maintain that pace this afternoon?

That's the first Friday of 2022 done and dusted!

Max Verstappen ends FP2 quickest and looks to be favourite for pole tomorrow afternoon. However, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari look like they're ready to take the fight to the world champion and his Red Bull outfit.

Yuki Tsunoda didn't spot Leclerc coming up behind him and the pair nearly collide at turn eight.

Daniel Ricciardo's FP2 has come to an end with a technical issue. That's not what the Australian needed having missed the three pre-season test days last week after a positive Covid-19 test. Lando Norris is still out there and currently sits 11th.

HAAS were the biggest surprise in pre-season testing and that looks set to continue this weekend. They currently sit in eighth and 10th.

Here's a look at how much Hamilton's head was moving as a result of the bumpy ride he's having on-board his Mercedes. It doesn't look the most comfortable, does it?

Hamilton has come over the radio again to say that the "front-right brake is pulling." He's currently ninth quickest, over a second behind Verstappen.

After losing out on last year's title in dramatic fashion, Hamilton was left questioning his position in the sport but has since confirmed he "holds no grudges."

Max Verstappen sets the quickest lap of 2022 so far to go top of the time sheets with a 1:31:936, six-tenths of a second quicker than Leclerc on the same compound of tyre.

Fernando Alonso did go quickest on the soft tyres, but has since been replaced by Charles Leclerc, who is also on the soft tyres.

It seems that the majority of the field are now going to focus on some qualifying simulations, so some quick laps may be coming...

Kevin Magnussen puts his HAAS into second position on the C3 red-walled soft compound tyre. An impressive lap-time from the Danish driver.

Alexander Albon just got a little too eager on the throttle coming out on turn one and got a big snap of oversteer as a result. He did well to gather it up without spinning and carries on his run.

Perez is now on track and on the C2 medium compound tyre, but locks-up the inside right tyre going into the turn eight hairpin. He's now gone fifth quickest.

Lewis Hamilton has come over the radio to say the car is "still bouncing around a lot", something which is very clear when watching the on-board shots as he heads down the main straight. The floor also sounded as if it was scraping a lot under braking going into turn one. Maybe those set-up changes haven't worked as well as he'd have liked?

Every car has made it out, other than Sergio Perez. Red Bull could potentially be putting him on a s lightly different run plan to everyone else, but surely they'll want him out on track sooner rather than later.

Ferrari probably had the best pre-season of anyone, which has put them as favourites in some people's eyes and so far here today, they look good. They currently sit top of the times in the early stages of this session.

Hamilton eagerly waits at the back of his Mercedes garage with his helmet on whilst his team finish sorting the set-up changes.

Green light at the end of the pit-lane - free practice two is go!

With just five minutes to go before free practice two, it looks as if Mercedes are making some set-up changes to Hamilton's car. That could see an improvement from the first free practice session earlier on, where the seven-time world champion set the seventh quickest time

After only completing two laps in free practice one earlier on, Valtteri Bottas needs a clean run in this session to make up for lost track time. His rookie teammate, Guanyu Zhou impressed in the first free practice session, setting the 11th fastest time.

Mercedes have suggested that they aren't sandbagging, despite Max Verstappen's accusations. Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have explained that the team's struggles are indeed real and that they anticipate a big fight with both Red Bull and Ferrari this season.