1st Day of Winter Testing done | Afternoon report: It's going to be close in 2025
General
The afternoon session of the first day of winter testing has seen the chequered flag, and from the past 4 hours of on-track running, it's the usual suspects at the top and one outlier. Here's a look at how the session unfolded.
Lando Norris may not have seen less on-track action than his rivals, however, this did not prevent him from topping the timesheets. Having spent nearly the first two hours of the session in the garage with the McLaren driver only completing reconnaissance laps before darting to the pits, Norris went to the track and was able to bang out a competitive lap from the get go. His first lap was good enough for P3 and in his subsequent runs he took P1 with a 1:30.430 which could not be toppled in the remainder of the session.
George Russell confirmed Andrea Kimi Antonelli's outright pace in the morning session for Mercedes slotting himself behind Norris a little over a tenth adrift from the McLaren driver's pace. Max Verstappen completed the top 3 with a 1:30.674, nearly two and a half tenths slower than Norris.
How it happened
It was over 20 minutes until the first teams and drivers took the track at Bahrain, with Isack Hadjar and Esteban Ocon being the first to emerge from the pitlane. For the French Algerian it was all about coming to grips with his VCARB02, something he struggled with throughout the session.
Verstappen was the first of the front-runners to leave the garage. With the cool temperatures in the early afternoon, the Red Bull Racing driver could only manage a time of 1:33.3, 1.19 seconds off the pace set by Antonelli in the morning. However, Verstappen was sporting hard tyres which, in addition to the cool temperatures may have resulted in the understeer that hindered his first efforts.
Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc and Norris all came out onto the track. The first two to register their first laps of the afternoon, and the latter to run the first of many planned changes by McLaren ahead of the session. The Alpine driver managed to leapfrog Lawson, with Verstappen following suit as both drivers placed themselves in P2 and P3, with Gasly leading the Red Bull Racing driver.
Hadjar, near the first hour mark, had a spin coming out of turn 7, a sector which the Racing Bulls driver constantly struggled with throughout the session.
Ten minutes after crossing the 1 hour threshold, Russell topped the timesheets making it a provisional Mercedes 1-2, with Hadjar continuing to be unable to close the gap to his teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, being 1.3 seconds behind the Japanese driver.
Charles Leclerc was able to split both Red Bull drivers, placing himself in the top 5 for the first time in the session, and shortly after, Gasly used his Alpine to split the Mercedes and place himself behind Russell in P2. Leclerc then, after wringing his SF-25's neck managed to beat Russell's Mercedes to the top.
Just before crossing the 2 hour mark, Norris put in his first timed lap and it was good enough for P3, showing a rather ease to put in good times on the board that may be daunting to McLaren's rivals.
Bahrain in the dark
After the clock had counted the 2 hours of activity on the track, a power outage caught everyone by surprise, with track personnel's efforts to bring the electricity back to the Bahrain Internation Circuit taking as long as 1 hour, between that and the spots of rain around the circuit, it was unclear whether or not teams and drivers would be able to come back out onto the tarmac at all.
Nevertheless, teams and fans alike were relieved when the FIA and F1 announced that not only would the session be resumed, but also the afternoon session would be extended by an hour to compensate for the lost time.
5 teams within 5 tenths
When the track was green, all drivers were eager to take to the track, with Verstappen racing Sauber rookie, Gabriel Bortoleto on the run up to turn 4. Just above the 1 hour mark, Verstappen went up to 4th just behind Norris. and Carlos Sainz took his FW47 to P6.
As Norris topped the timesheets, Sainz went even quicker and managed to slot himself in P5, just behind Verstappen. Although Hadjar moved up to Tsunoda’s time, and managed to slot in behind his teammate after having spent the majority of the session adrift off the Japanese's pace, the Racing Bulls rookie went off track once again at turn 7.
Verstappen placed himself behind Norris with a 1:30.6, almost two and a half tenths behind his McLaren rival, only to be pushed down to P3 by Mercedes driver, Russell.
Ocon, Hadjar and Verstappen did the most laps in the afternoon, with the Haas driver doing 88, the Racing Bulls driver 76 and the Red Bull Racing driver 74. How close will it be in 2025? At least during the afternoon session, Verstappen, Norris and Russell set the records for sectors 1 through 3 respectively.
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