Daniel Ricciardo led the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to kick-off F1 2024 season’s FP1 in Bahrain GP.
The FP1 in F1 Bahrain GP weekend to kick-off 2024 season saw Visa Cash App RB’s Daniel Ricciardo set the pace with a 1m32.869s lap on the soft compound ahead of his former team McLaren by just the 0.032s margin in the sunlight.
It was Lando Norris (1m32.901s) ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri (1m33.113s) in the Top 3, as Visa Cash App RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was fourth to round out the soft runners inside the Top 5. The first of the medium runner was Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in fifth.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was sixth but continued his complaints of upshift and downshift as he did so in F1 2023 too. Mercedes’ George Russell was seventh which included a lock-up into Turn 1, which caught out several drivers during the session.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was eighth after his small moment at Turn 4, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton ninth and Stake F1 Team’s Valtteri Bottas 10th. The Finn did his lap on the soft compound, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz slotting in 1th.
He had his own lock-up at Turn 1 too as he led Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, Williams’ Alexander Albon, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Stake F1 Team’s Zhou Guanyu in the Top 15 – where the Chinese racer also set his best lap on the soft compound.
He complained about brake issues early in the session, but got through the whole session without any issues. Stroll, meanwhile, had a big lock-up too as Williams’ Logan Sargeant was 16th from the Alpine pair and the Haas pair.
It was Esteban Ocon leading in 17th from Pierre Gasly, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, where both the Haas F1 drivers had their moments at Turn 11. Interestingly, the Top 14 drivers were covered by one second with Stroll only 0.999s off Ricciardo.
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