FP1: Norris puts McLaren on top in opening practice in Bahrain
McLaren's Lando Norris set the benchmark time in the opening practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton taking second and third in the one-hour session. F1Technical's Balazs Szabo reports on Free Practice 1.
The opening practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix turned out to be an unusual session as several regular drivers were replaced by reserve and test drivers. It was not a surprising choice from the teams as the field has already completed three days of testing at Bahrain during February, which means that missing a session in Manama was less painful than at any other circuits.
The one-hour session features appearances from six rookies. Ayumu Iwasa, Dino Beganovic, Fred Vesti, Felipe Drugovich, Ryo Hirakawa and Luke Browning were set to turn out for Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Haas and Williams respectively, taking the place of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Fernando Alonso, Ollie Bearman and Carlos Sainz.
Despite the unusual run plans across the field, there was no surprise at the top of the leaderboard, with McLaren's Lando Norris having set the benchmark in the opening one-hour session, from Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton.
Williams driver Alex Albon reported a loss of power in the closing stages, but his best effort saw the Thai driver end up fourth quickest, ahead of Haas’ Esteban Ocon in fifth and Hulkenberg in sixth. Jack Doohan was seventh for Alpine, with Lawson, Tsunoda and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri completing the top 10.
Bortoleto ended the hour in 11th, followed by Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, Browning and Beganovic. The Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Drugovich took 15th and 16th respectively, with Rio Hirakawa, Fred Vesti and Ayumu Iwasa.
Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished the session down in P20 after having missed most of the session due to technical issues. The Bologna-born driver reported “no power” before slowly returning to the pits less than 10 minutes into the session.
Elsewhere, Albon had two incidents on the track. The Thai driver was first released into the path of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda in the pit lane, prompting the Thai driver to apologise over the radio. In addition, the London-born driver caused a dangerous situation when Williams' young driver Luke Browning was forced to take avoiding action when Albon was driving very slowly on the racing line.
