Red Bull Racing star makes strong start to F1 season by topping both Friday Practice sessions in Gulf Air Bahrain GP at BIC

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Max Verstappen was the star man yesterday as the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship got underway with the first two practice sessions of the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).

Verstappen topped both sessions as he put on a fine display of Red Bull’s strong early pace in the season-opening meeting.

After setting the pace in the opening hour-long practice with the best time of one minute 31.394 seconds during the daytime, the Dutchman then lit up BIC’s 5.412-kilometre Grand Prix track at night with a blistering lap of 1:30.847 under the lights.

“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,” said Verstappen after practice two.

“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 windier which is a challenge for everyone in these cars.

“I am pretty happy with the start of the weekend but tomorrow is a different day and we have to see whether we can do it in qualifying when it counts.”

In F1’s First Practice today, Verstappen picked up from where he left off in pre-season testing, powering straight to the top of the timesheet.

He completed a total of 12 laps in the session.

Valtteri Bottas for constructors’ world champions Mercedes was right behind 0.298s off the leading pace, while Lando Norris came third for McLaren 0.503s behind Verstappen.

Defending drivers’ world champion Lewis Hamilton (+0.527s) was fourth in the other Mercedes and Charles Leclerc (+0.599s) fifth for Ferrari, while Sergio Perez (+0.677s) in the second Red Bull car made it into the top six.

Pierre Gasly (+0.801s) for AlphaTauri and Carlos Sainz (+0.972s) in the other Ferrari rounded out the top eight.

Completing the First Practice classification from ninth through 20th, respectively, were

Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)

 Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)

Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)

 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)

 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)

 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)

 Fernando Alonso (Alpine)

 George Russell (Williams)

 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)

 Mick Schumacher (Haas)

 Nikita Mazepin (Haas).

In practice two, Norris was this time the runner-up in the session being classified just 0.095secs behind Verstappen.

Hamilton was third 0.235s from first as Mercedes kicked off their eighth straight title-defence on the right foot.

Sainz ( + 0 . 2 8 0 s ) w a s fourth-quickest, followed by Bottas (+0.371s) in fifth and Daniel Ricciardo (+0.383s) sixth.

Tsunoda (+0.447s) and Stroll (+0.546s) were seventh and eighth, respectively. The rest of the Second Practice classification order, from ninth to 20th, respectively, saw Gasly, Perez, Ocon, Leclerc, Giovinazzi, Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen, Russell, Schumacher, Latifi and Mazepin. The F1 action resumes today with the Third Practice, starting at 3 pm.

It will also be held for over an hour.