Lewis Hamilton was the fastest on the first day of free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Formula 1. The second session, held at night, was when the best times emerged.
With higher temperatures and daylight still dominating the Sakhir track, FP1 had higher lap times. Almost all drivers worked with the harder tire compounds. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) led in the early stages but complained about issues with his driving, including gear changes.
Those who chose to use soft tires had the advantage in this session. Daniel Ricciardo (Visa Cash App RB F1 Team) was one of them and finished at the top with a lap time of 1m32.869s, beating Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes) by just 32 milliseconds. Norris’ teammate, Oscar Piastri, was third, 0.244s behind, followed by Yuki Tsunoda (Visa Cash App RB F1 Team) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin/Mercedes) – the strongest among those who used medium tires. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was sixth, with George Russell (Mercedes) in seventh ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) and Hamilton. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) took the other Ferrari to 11th, just above Sergio Pérez in the second Red Bull.
In the second session, the drivers were able to work with conditions representative of what they will encounter in qualifying and the race. Therefore, the approach was different and the times were faster. Several teams chose to only run on soft tires in this FP2.
Right from the start, Hamilton moved to the top of the time table, but only set the fastest time halfway through the session: 1m30.374s. His teammate Russell came closest, being 0.206s slower. After that, there were no improvements until the end, with the focus on longer stints.
Alonso set the third fastest time, with Sainz and Piastri in front of three-time champion Verstappen – who was nearly half a second slower than Hamilton. The biggest surprise was the seventh place of Nico Hülkenberg (Haas/Ferrari). Leclerc and Pérez were ninth and tenth, respectively.
FP1 Times:
FP2 Times:
