Leclerc and Vettel 1-2 in opening Bahrain practice
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 |