#BahrainGP FP1: @SChecoPerez tops time-sheets ahead of @alo_oficial. #F1

Perez Bahrain GP FP1 – Sergio Perez was quickest in the opening FP1 session at the Bahrain GP as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso split the Red Bull pairing in second place and reigning world champion Max Verstappen completed the top three in the other RB19 entry.

Perez’s posted the benchmark of a 1:32.758 halfway through the 60-minute session, using the C3 red side-walled softer compounds and was 0.438 seconds faster than Alonso with team-mate Verstappen a further 0.617 seconds adrift of the Mexican.

In a warm 27 degrees at the Bahrain International Circuit, conditions that are unrepresentative of qualifying and the race, which are run during the evening, Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon was the first to head out on track, with team-mate Logan Sargeant following him out of the pit-lane.

As the two Mercedes-powered FW45 racers pitted after their sighting tours, McLaren’s Lando Norris recorded the first lap time of the season, a 1:37.462 on the C2 yellow-marked compounds.

This was quickly disposed of by Perez who set a 1:35.069 effort, almost five seconds away from the 1:30.305 he posted in pre-season testing on the faster C4 rubber, the compound not being used this weekend.

But Alonso came in and displaced the Mexican, setting a 1:35.048, and whilst Verstappen registered his opening effort a couple of minutes later, the defending champion was 0.381 seconds off.

The gap closed slightly when Alonso posted a 1:34.867, but the early advantage continued to belong to Perez as the teams used the early proceedings to work on their setups and running flow-vis paint to test their aerodynamics.

After a quiet opening half-an-hour of running, Perez had now fitted a set of C3 red-branded softer tyres and smashed his own benchmark by almost two seconds, setting a 1:32.758 to push his advantage on the top of the classification. He was followed over the line by team-mate Verstappen, whose own softer rubber hot-lap was 0.6 seconds adrift of the Mexican.

Drivers then began to explore the limits of their 2023 machinery more freely following an experimental opening 30 minutes, and errors began to creep in; Alonso encountered a wide moment at turn four, moments before McLaren’s Norris went straight on at the first corner, as the Briton bled off the brakes in his MCL60 racer before the front-tyres had a chance to lock.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz then suffered a spin at turn nine as the rear of his SF-23 racer stepped out through the braking zone; but the Spaniard was able to get his car racing the right way. Sainz later said over the radio that it was due to cold tyres on the right-hand side.

Norris jumped up to third place on the softs after a flurry of mistakes where largely contained in the sessions third quarter of proceedings, the Briton was 1.4 seconds adrift of Perez’s benchmark, and was briefly ousted by Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu before Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc split them in fourth place.

Alonso began his own soft tyre flyer in a bid to knock Perez off the P1 slot, and despite getting within a tenth by the end of sector one, could only manage a 1:33.196 – 0.438 seconds off the Mexican.

This proved to be the only threat Perez had to withstand, and ended opening practice as he did testing with the quickest effort.

Verstappen completed the top three behind Alonso, with a 0.8 second advantage over Norris and Leclerc.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who returned to action after suffering a broken wrist in a cycling accident, which caused the Canadian to miss pre-season testing, made a slow start to the session as the Silverstone based-outfit sought to ensure their driver did not have any ill-effects following an operation.

Stroll managed to clock 17 laps by end of FP1 and placed sixth in the order, setting a 1:34.298 and was a tenth clear of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who was seventh.

Alfa Romeo’s Zhou had a problem with the positioning of his pedals in the C43 racer but was told the team could not re-align them until the break before Free Practice 2. The Chinese driver placed eighth and ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas who took ninth.

Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton rounded out the top ten and in-front of team-mate George Russell who was 11th.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri took 12th in the classification and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who placed 13th and Haas F1 Team’s Nick Hulkenberg who finished FP1 in 14th.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ended opening practice in 15th and 17th respectively as AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries split the duo in 16th place.

Williams Racing pairing Logan Sargeant and Alexander Albon were 18th and 19th respectively as the aforementioned Sainz brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1141/bahrain/practice-1.html

#F1 Gulf Air #BahrainGP and Season 2023 Preview. #F1isBack #Formula1