Max Verstappen made a strong start to the weekend in first practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia; the last winner of a race at Sepang set a 37.520, putting his Red Bull almost four tenths faster than George Russell. Verstappen was immediately fastest and remained near the top for much of the session.
Russell, who pipped Verstappen to victory in Baku last week, was second quickest in a Mercedes car with a major aerodynamic upgrade this weekend. The Englishman went four tenths faster than Isack Hadjar; he managed to split the Mercedes duo as the Frenchman went four hundredths behind.
However, the Frenchman’s session was trickier than Verstappen’s, he was struggling with the low-grip nature of Sepang. Also causing headaches was the heat and humid conditions of the Southeast Asian country, given temperatures hit 32C.
Amid typically hot and humid Malaysian weather, and on a noticeably dusty track, tyre degradation was quickly a factor on a circuit that features an older tarmac and numerous long, fast corners.
Most of Mercedes’ work on Friday will be about understanding their upgrades, assessing the revised W17’s performance, and getting the most out of it. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fifth, six tenths behind Russell as he went over two tenths behind Charles Leclerc.
Antonelli was fifth but a full second off Verstappen’s pace a week on from a Baku weekend when he was comprehensively outperformed by Russell, who cut the Italian’s championship led to sixty-six points. The Italian split the Ferraris after going a hundredth ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was ahead of Pierre Gasly by a tenth and a quarter.
Liam Lawson was nine hundredths ahead of Racing Bull’s teammate Arvid Lindblad, who will start from the back of the grid as a result of a grid penalty for using too many engine parts. Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.
McLaren missed out on the top ten by six and a half hundredths, with Oscar Piastri two hundredths faster than Lando Norris. They ran a back-to-back comparison of their version of ‘Macarena’ rotating rear wing – which they call the H-wing – with Piastri running the design while Norris had the standard specification.
The McLaren duo split the Audi’s, as Norris was a quarter of a second faster than Gabriel Bortoletto. McLaren was believed to be the team to beat at this track, but the world champions had a low-key first session.
The Brazilian, who was over two and a half seconds off the outright pace, declared, “This is the craziest I’ve ever been in my life with temperatures… Even more than Bahrain in FP1.”
Fernando Alonso was nearly half a second ahead of the Haas, with outgoing driver Esteban Ocon going a tenth and a half ahead of teammate Ollie Bearman, while Alonso’s Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll was nearly a tenth behind.
Franco Colapinto was three-quarters of a tenth faster than Carlos Sainz, with the Cadillac duo completing the field. Valtteri Bottas setting the exact same time as teammate Sergio Perez.
