Leclerc and Vettel 1-2 in opening Bahrain practice

Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc

Are Mercedes sandbagging or did Ferrari find its speed it lost between preseason testing and the opening F1 race in Australia?

Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel ran 1-2 in opening practice for the Bahrain GP but the margin to the third quickest, Valtteri Bottas' Mercedes, was almost a full second leaving many to assume that Mercedes has a lot more in hand. That plus the fact this session was run in the heat of the day and the night session (practice 2) is where the track temps will be more indicative of qualifying and race conditions.

Leclerc's time of 1m30.354s topped Vettel by 0.263s and Bottas by 0.974s with Lewis Hamilton in 4th 1.247s off the pace.

Max Verstappen rounded out the top-5 for Red Bull.

Pierre Gasly was 6th, less than two tenths down on Verstappen.

The McLaren of Carlos Sainz Jr, which has taken a new Renault engine for this weekend following a fiery MGU-K failure in the Australian GP, was an impressive seventh fastest, just 0.137s down on Gasly.

Nico Hulkenberg's Renault – which collided with Antonio Giovinazzi's Alfa Romeo in the closing minutes of the session – was eighth, ahead of Daniil Kvyat's Toro Rosso-Honda and Kimi Raikkonen's Alfa.

Practice 1 Results

POS NO DRIVER CAR TIME GAP LAPS
1 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.354 +0.000s 20
2 5 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:30.617 +0.263s 21
3 77 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:31.328 +0.974s 26
4 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:31.601 +1.247s 23
5 33 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing Honda 1:31.673 +1.319s 21
6 10 Pierre Gasly Red Bull Racing Honda 1:31.815 +1.461s 17
7 55 Carlos Sainz Jr. Mclaren Renault 1:31.952 +1.598s 28
8 27 Nico Hulkenberg Renault 1:32.040 +1.686s 17
9 26 Daniil Kvyat Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:32.339 +1.985s 24
10 7 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:32.385 +2.031s 23
11 3 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:32.401 +2.047s 19
12 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas Ferrari 1:32.602 +2.248s 21
13 23 Alexander Albon Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda 1:32.874 +2.520s 24
14 11 Sergio Perez Racing Point BWT Mercedes 1:32.885 +2.531s 20
15 4 Lando Norris Mclaren Renault 1:32.945 +2.591s 29
16 99 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari 1:32.949 +2.595s 22
17 8 Romain Grosjean Haas Ferrari 1:32.994 +2.640s 22
18 18 Lance Stroll Racing Point BWT Mercedes 1:33.518 +3.164s 16
19 63 George Russell Williams Mercedes 1:34.188 +3.834s 26
20 88 Robert Kubica Williams Mercedes 1:34.253 +3.899s 27