All Formula 1 fans have waited a long time for it, but the first free practice of the season is behind us. Expectations around Verstappen were high, but the Dutchman only focused on the medium tyre. A number of drivers did set some faster laps. Daniel Ricciardo ended practice with the fastest time, followed by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Ricciardo posted a 1:32:869. The McLaren drivers drove just slightly slower, followed by Yuki Tsunoda. Not everyone drove fast laps on the soft tyre. Max Verstappen only drove on mediums. The Dutchman finished in sixth place, just behind the fastest on mediums, Fernando Alonso. There will probably be more faster laps during the second free practice session.
Full results Bahrain FP1
The RB is impressive, vs the rest of the field but they did run softs and the RB20 did a 1.31.44 during testing on the mediums. So its not so shocking . The p2 session should be more reflective of qualifying tomorrow and those times will be telling.
Oh...boy. someones not gonna like that. Brings back bad memories from 2018 when Ricciardo mopped the floor with him. I think Ricciardo is going to get an angry visit from a very angry, violent 51 year old man demanding he slow down. Or....mysteriously some setup changes will be made on Red Bull 2
Off course you failed to see he was on a harder compound tyre ;-) We will talk again after the weekend, if you last that long here
Indeed, i don't know what that comment said, but i was about to say the same as you did. Max got beat, on a softer compound and by 3 tenths, which is around about the advantage you get out of a softer compound on a good (not great) lap. Not that i'm trying to grasp at straws to make Max look better, i am not denying that Danny drove the fastest lap, but yeah, the compound is definitely a factor. And Max wasn't entirely happy with the setup yet. We'll see in an hour or two. It would be something if RB were to be the closest competitor to Red Bull, more a testimony towards the other teams though, as then Red Bull have shown that they can make it work with different designs, ouch. People will be quick to say that it's a carbon copy of the RB19, pun intended, but we already know that they differ a lot. But who knows what they'll look like after the already announced big upgrades in a couple of months.
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