F1 Bahrain GP: Ricciardo quickest in first practice from Norris and Piastri

RB and McLaren were only joined by Sauber in running the softs in FP1, which ended with Yuki Tsunoda fourth ahead of Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen in fifth and sixth for Aston Martin and Red Bull respectively.

Most of the pack headed out immediately at the start of the one-hour session where windy conditions prevailed in relatively cool temperatures for F1’s visit to the Sakhir track in the high teens, with all the early running conducted on the medium tyres – the C2 variety at last weekend’s test.

The high number of cars on track early meant the lead changed hands rapidly through the first phase, before Verstappen took command at the top.

The Dutchman had been held in the pits longest of all before he joined the fray with the end of the opening 10 minutes remaining.

He duly shot to the top of the times with his first effort – a 1m33.900s compared to the 1m38.955 that Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg had established as the opening benchmark as he led the pack out then pits initially.

The pack continued to pound around through the opening phase, with both Red Bull drivers making brief visits to the pits for front wing flap adjustments to aid their handling, as Verstappen in particular was complaining his RB20 initially felt “miles off”.

After the Mercedes pair had continued to find time as their opening runs continued, Hamilton got to 0.025s of Verstappen’s leading time before George Russell deposed the world champion with a 1m33.749s.

Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38 (Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images)

But that advantage lasted only a few seconds as Verstappen, having returned to the action following his trip to the pits, moved ahead again on a 1m33.535s before most of the drivers headed back to their garages and a lull in action ensued.

Before the 30-minute mark was hit, Piastri led the switch to the C3 softs and he used the red-walled rubber to post a new benchmark of 1m33.113s – 0.422s ahead of Verstappen’s previous best.

Piastri’s team-mate, Norris, then produced his own soft tyre flier just past the halfway point to go quickest on a 1m32.901s, as the previous frontrunners returned to the track but still running the medium tyres.

Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Sergio Perez quickly registered better times on the mediums, but not enough to dislodge the McLarens, while other teams moving to the softs also had their drivers move ahead.

Tsunoda’s first softs lap slotted him in behind Piastri, while in the other RB Ricciardo took the top spot after 36 minutes with a softs-shod 1m32.869s.

As end of the middle third approached, Verstappen finally improved his best time on the mediums – slotting in ahead of Russell and Leclerc but behind the leading softs runners at this stage, having been complaining further about a “positive torque” issue with his engine.

After another lull in action ahead of the final 10 minutes, most of the pack headed out again for a final blast, but still the early frontrunners eschewed running the softs and instead concentrated on higher fuel running.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20 (Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images)

This preserved the order at the top of the times, leaving a final top 10 behind the top four of Alonso 0.324s off P1, Verstappen 0.369s back, followed by Russell, Leclerc, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, who ended up 0.485s slower than Ricciardo with his best time also set on the softs.

Bottas twice attempted a final softs flier late in FP1, but after an improvement in the first sector on his first go he fell back and did not go any quicker.

F1 Bahrain GP - FP1 results

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Chassis	Engine	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	D. Ricciardo RB	3		RB	Red Bull	23	1'32.869		209.792
2	L. Norris McLaren	4		McLaren	Mercedes	25	+0.032 1'32.901	0.032	209.720
3	O. Piastri McLaren	81		McLaren	Mercedes	25	+0.244 1'33.113	0.212	209.242
4	Y. Tsunoda RB	22		RB	Red Bull	24	+0.314 1'33.183	0.070	209.085
5	F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing	14		Aston Martin	Mercedes	20	+0.324 1'33.193	0.010	209.062
6	M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing	1		Red Bull	Red Bull	21	+0.369 1'33.238	0.045	208.962
7	G. Russell Mercedes	63		Mercedes	Mercedes	25	+0.382 1'33.251	0.013	208.932
8	C. Leclerc Ferrari	16		Ferrari	Ferrari	24	+0.399 1'33.268	0.017	208.894
9	L. Hamilton Mercedes	44		Mercedes	Mercedes	22	+0.433 1'33.302	0.034	208.818
10	V. Bottas Sauber	77		Sauber	Ferrari	21	+0.485 1'33.354	0.052	208.702
11	C. Sainz Ferrari	55		Ferrari	Ferrari	26	+0.516 1'33.385	0.031	208.633
12	S. Perez Red Bull Racing	11		Red Bull	Red Bull	24	+0.544 1'33.413	0.028	208.570
13	A. Albon Williams	23		Williams	Mercedes	17	+0.714 1'33.583	0.170	208.191
14	L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing	18		Aston Martin	Mercedes	20	+0.999 1'33.868	0.285	207.559
15	Z. Guanyu Sauber	24		Sauber	Ferrari	16	+1.054 1'33.923	0.055	207.438
16	L. Sargeant Williams	2		Williams	Mercedes	19	+1.344 1'34.213	0.290	206.799
17	E. Ocon Alpine	31		Alpine	Renault	21	+1.938 1'34.807	0.594	205.503
18	P. Gasly Alpine	10		Alpine	Renault	24	+2.275 1'35.144	0.337	204.775
19	K. Magnussen Haas F1 Team	20		Haas	Ferrari	25	+4.608 1'37.477	2.333	199.874
20	N. Hulkenberg Haas F1 Team	27		Haas	Ferrari	27	+5.069 1'37.938	0.461	198.934
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