Fernando Alonso rolled back the years to top the times in the opening day’s practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday.
In his first race weekend for new team Aston Martin, the 41-year-old clocked the best time of 1:30.907 from his 25 laps.
Following a strong winter test, it merely reinforced the suggestion that Aston Martin have taken a giant stride forwards over the course of the winter.
Max Verstappen and Red Bull remain the team to beat in Sunday’s race and the defending champion was just a tenth of a second behind Alonso’s best time in the second hour-long practice session under the Sakhir circuit lights despite complaining of issues with the RB19.
Verstappen’s teammmate Sergio Perez, who had topped the times in the earlier daytime session with a best lap of 1:32.758, ended the second session in third place. Alonso had been second in that earlier practice run, just 0.438s behind the Mexican.
In that opening session, Verstappen, who complained he was not as comfortable with the car as he had been in winter testing last week, struggled with front-end grip but was still third quickest before moving up a place in the second session.
Charles Leclerc told his team he was content with the balance of this year’s Ferrari and ended up with the fourth-quickest time come the evening ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, making his return to the grid as Mick Schumacher’s replacement at Haas.
Neither Lewis Hamilton nor George Russell looked entirely at ease with the W14 throughout the two sessions. Russell had to come into the pits for a check on his floor after veering slightly off the track and complained of aerodynamic disturbance down the home straight.
His best lap was only enough for 13th quickest at the end of the day’s running, while Hamilton was in eighth, although just a second separated the fastest 14 times.
The drivers return to the grid for a third hour-long session at 11.30am GMT on Saturday.
