Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the speediest star of yesterday’s Formula 1 racing, as the 2021 season of F1 kicked off at the Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).
Verstappen set a time of one minute 31.394 seconds in the first practice session yesterday afternoon and then went on to top the second session under the floodlights at the BIC with a fastest lap of one minute 30.847 seconds.
“It’s been a good day again and with the heat and the wind it is not easy to find a perfect balance around the whole lap but overall, I would say it was a positive day,” Verstappen said, at the end of the day.
In the first session, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas was 0.298 seconds behind the Dutchman, followed by Lando Norris (McLaren), world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Sergio Perez (Red Bull), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), all within 1.4 seconds of the leader.
The morning session was hotter than it is expected to be tomorrow evening, with track temperatures soaring to as high as 44 degrees Celsius.
Verstappen’s fastest time in the session came despite him running his RB16B for just 12 laps, the fewest of all the drivers during the evening session.
“There are still things to improve and look into for tomorrow, tyre wise and a bit of balance tuning, plus I think it will be even more windy which is a challenge for everyone in these cars,” Verstappen added.
“I am pretty happy with the start of the weekend but we have to see whether we can do it in qualifying when it counts.”
The second session saw Alfa Romeo driver and 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen veer off Turn 3, bashing his car’s front wing and nose against the barrier, damaging the car.
In this session, Norris was just 0.095 seconds short of Verstappen, followed by, in order, Hamilton, Sainz, Bottas, Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Gasly and Perez.
“A reasonable first day back in the car,” Norris noted after the race.
“I think we started where we left off in testing, which is a good thing. The car has improved in some areas, which is positive, but other areas have got a little bit worse. It’s been a tricky day to put it all together but on the whole I’m happy.”
Norris’ team mate Ricciardo noted the shorter span of the practice sessions, which have dropped from 90 minutes to 60, adding: “You feel the half-hour. It goes quick. I think it was quite fortunate that we were here a couple of weeks ago, so we could hit the ground running. I think you need to make the most of that track time.
“I’m still getting there, I still want to find a few things in the car and obviously within myself. In FP2 I made some inroads, but hopefully I’ll find another step tomorrow to get more where I want to be.”
The third and final practice session is set to take place today at 3pm, followed by the Qualifying session at 6pm, which will determine the starting grid for tomorrow evening’s Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at 6pm.
Gates for tomorrow’s racing action will open at 11am.
Tickets for the weekend are still available for all Covid- vaccinated and Covid-recovered individuals at a single discounted price of BD100 across stands. Tickets can be purchased online at bahraingp.com, at the sales marquee located next to Sakhir Petrol Station right before reaching BIC and at BIC’s City Centre stand, open every day between 10am and 10pm.
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