BAHRAIN GP – Lando Norris fastest by two tenths in first practice from Pierre Gasly, as rookies step up
Lando Norris was fastest in first practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, the McLaren driver set a 33.204 on soft tyres to put himself two-tenths faster than the Alpine of Pierre Gasly. McLaren go into this weekend expected to be the team to beat as they look to bounce back from a strategic error last weekend in Suzuka.
However, conditions in first practice are not representative of those in qualifying or the race given this is a night race and conditions are a lot warmer than in testing and recent years. Gasly was three and a half tenths faster than the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton, but the Ferrari was nearly six-tenths off the pace of the McLaren.
Norris’s fastest time came towards the end of the session going ahead of the Alpine the only team yet to score points this season. But most of Ferrari’s work appeared focused on understanding the upgrades to six different areas of the car, as they looked for a step forwards towards McLaren.
Four of those new parts were focused on the SF-25’s floor, with Ferrari chasing crucial extra downforce to close the gap to the front. The car also ran with changes to its rear wing and diffuser. Though Hamilton did look to struggle with grip, and was one of several drivers to complain about balance and grip.
McLaren, who are partly owned by Bahraini investors, go into what is effectively their second home race looking to take their first win in Sakhir. Alex Albon continued his and Williams strong start to the season going fourth, a tenth and a quarter behind the Ferrari and ahead of Esteban Ocon by around a quarter of a second, after narrowly avoiding contact with reserve driver Luke Browning.
The near miss happened at Turn Twelve, Browning was on his hot lap and Albon on a cooldown lap, he came up behind the British-Thai driver forcing him to take avoiding action. Ocon was three-quarters of a tenth ahead of the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg, while Jack Doohan put his Alpine a tenth behind.
Six of the cars were not driven by their regular drivers because teams were fulfilling their requirements to run young drivers twice in the season. This was because the unrepresentative of the conditions and the running in testing six weeks ago with Bahrain being a twilight race temperatures will drop significantly later in the day.
Also, the usual caveat of unknown fuel loads and engine modes, the session’s unrepresentative nature was compounded by number of rookie drivers and the session being run in the heat of the day at 35C air temperature and 47C track temperature, significantly hotter than anticipated during the night-time qualifying session and race.
Liam Lawson put his Racing Bull just a thousandth behind Doohan as he went ahead of Yuki Tsunoda by a quarter of a tenth. Max Verstappen was one of the drivers to sit out the session, with Ayumi Iwasa driving his car and ending the session. Oscar Piastri completed the top ten going a tenth behind Tsunoda, and over a second off Norris.
Gabriel Bortoleto was eleventh, the Sauber driver missed out on the top ten by just under a tenth and a quarter as the Brazilian went four hundredths ahead of Isack Hajar. Browning was thirteenth as he went nearly two-tenths faster than Dino Beganovic, with the Ferrari ahead of Aston Martin’s.
But both Williams have been noted for the possible impeding incident that occurred between the two Williams drivers, with Browning having to take avoiding action after encountering a slow-moving Albon on track. While Albon is under investigation for an unsafe release into the path of Yuki Tsunoda.
Lance Stroll was nearly a tenth faster than reserve driver Felipe Drugovich who replaced Fernando Alonso in the second Aston Martin. Ryo Hirakawa put the Haas seventeenth going six hundred faster than the Mercedes of Fred Vesti, who replaced George Russel. While Kimi Antonelli was last after his Mercedes developed a power unit issue ten minutes into the session, the Italian two and a half seconds behind the Red Bull of Ayumu iwasa.