Bahrain Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Daniel Ricciardo leads an insignificant session

More than 3 months after the checkered flag at Abu Dhabi, the single-seaters were back on track officially.

The 24-weekend race marathon for this 2024 season began at 12:30 French time on Thursday.

A special day for a trial session, the weekend taking on a unique form due to Ramadan starting on Sunday.

The course of the session

Sergio Perez set the fastest time of the session on medium tires, with a lap time of 1:35.093. All cars started on medium tires, and nearly everyone set competitive times. The two silver arrows shook up the order by posting the top two lap times, with Hamilton leading George Russell by 34 milliseconds.

It was then time for the three-time world champion, Max Verstappen, to take off. He lit up all sectors in purple to set the best time on his first lap in 1:33.900. This did not stop him from grumbling on the radio, complaining about his gearbox.

15 minutes after the start of the session, the 2 Stake Sauber and Alex Albon were the last ones to take to the track.

George Russell set the fastest time in 1:33.749. Max Verstappen immediately responded, improving the British driver’s time by 2 tenths.

A hierarchy in the medium tire category was starting to take shape, with Haas occupying the last two positions in the standings. Mercedes and Ferrari were the only teams to have both their cars within a second of the Red Bulls. Only Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris also managed to be within one second of the leaders.

The soft tires out for just a few.

A few minutes before the halfway point, Oscar Piastri was the first to put on the red tires. He set the fastest time with 1:33.113.

Pierre Gasly, still on medium tires, set off for a quick lap but without success, finishing his lap in only 18th place. Alpine seemed to be struggling, with Ocon also in 16th place. The latter complained on the radio about an inconsistent car.

Lando Norris on soft tires beat his teammate by 2 tenths, placing himself at the top of the time sheet.

George Russell missed the braking point at turn number 1, and opted for a long straight line to preserve his tires. This was unlike Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz before him, who both locked up their wheels.

The V-CARB (AlphaTauri) appeared to be in good form on soft tires. Daniel Ricciardo took the lead in the standings, Yuki Tsunoda rose to 4th place. It should be noted that they were the only ones to have put on the red compound tires so far with McLaren. The Stake team followed suit and respectively moved up to 9th for Bottas and 13th for Zhou. These positions were not of great significance amidst the times set on medium tires.

With 20 minutes remaining, the pace of the session was slowing somewhat, with lap times not improving much. Many single-seaters were remaining in the garage.

Lance Stroll then suffered from rear-end instability, which was a recurring issue for many cars during this first session.

All the single-seaters slowed down, completing longer stints. Max Verstappen did not push on his tires, still on mediums. Ricciardo finished this session in first place.

Free Practice 1 classification of the Bahrain Grand Prix 2024