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Mercedes dominate FP1 with Sergio Perez P3 in Bahrain

27 November 2020 at 12:19
Last update 27 November 2020 at 12:35
  • Louis Shaw
  • Editor

Lewis Hamilton topped FP1 in Bahrain with a 1.29.033. It was a largely uneventful session which saw Valtteri Bottas finish P2 and Sergio Perez, who continues to impress, in P3. 

There were two drivers standing in with Robert Kubica and Roy Nissany coming in for Kimi Raikkonen and George Russell. They both performed relatively well with Kubica putting his Alfa Romeo P13 and Nissany having a clean session down in P20. 

There was the constant threat of rain with drivers reporting a few drops here and there but nothing significant ever came. However, there were still plenty of spins as the drivers got up to grips with the circuit. 

Valtteri Bottas kept locking up his front tyres and will hope to have got the hang of the circuit now or he will run out of tyres before too long! Charles Leclerc, Romain Grosjean and Max Verstappen all spun but they all avoided the wall and didn’t cause themselves too much damage. 

There was plenty of running as the drivers were testing a new 2021 Pirelli C3 tyre early on in the session.

Red Bull Racing were seemingly off the pace with Verstappen finishing P6 and Albon P7. They'll hope they can find some pace this afternoon in FP2. 

Carlos Sainz, Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc all made the top 10. However, the second free practice in Bahrain will be a lot more representative as it will be driven under the same conditions as qualifying and the race.