The first practice session of the 2023 season ended with Red Bull leading the log as Sergio Perez set the fastest time ahead of Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin during free practice 1 at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Perez’s lap of 1m 32.758s saw him dominate the session on soft tires with 30 minutes of the hour remaining, while Alonso with soft tires ended in second place. Two-time champion Max Verstappen finished third with 0.617 seconds behind the pace set by his Red Bull teammate.
Lando Norris settled in the fourth place for McLaren, while Charles Leclerc who was the fastest driver in the medium tires ended in P5, 1.5 seconds off the pace.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (P6) returned after injuring his wrist in a pre-season cycling accident, which caused him to miss the test-although he spent most of the first half of FP1 in the garage with ignition problems, ended the session with 23 minutes left
Kevin Magnussen finished 7th for Haas with Alfa Romeos duo of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas ended in eighth and ninth positions.
Mercedes Hamilton, wrapped up the top 10, ahead of his teammate George Russell in P11 – neither of the duo ran the race with soft tires.
McLaren rookie Oscar Piastri leads Alphatauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (who ended in 13th place) to finish 12th in soft tires.
Haas’ returning driver Nico Hulkenberg took 14th place on soft tyres and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took the 15th place. Nyck de Vries who drives for Alphatauri finished on P16 with soft tires.
Pierre Gasly had a quiet show for the Alpine in P17.
Logan Sargeant who opted for hard compounds was 18th. Alex Albon was 3.458 seconds behind him in P19.
Carlos Sainz finished 20th overall for Ferrari after the Spaniard shrugged off a spin at turn 10 midway the session.
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