03/26/2021 10:31 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 03/26/2021 10:31 AM
The less than half an hour that Formula 1 testing has since this season was missed this Friday at the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix activity, where Max Verstappen put his Red Bull in front of the times of the first session.
But the Austrian team was not the only one that bid for that place;
Neither did Mercedes:
Three other brands jumped into the fray
, giving the category some of the lost excitement in 2020.
The Dutchman started on new soft tires on the final
stretch
of the first contact with the track at the Sakhir circuit and
confirmed the great performance
that the RB16B had shown in the preseason, just two weeks ago on the same track.
First, the record for the first sector held by Lewis Hamilton dropped two tenths and another three tenths the second, which was held by the other Mercedes, Valtteri Bottas.
Although in the third he could no longer beat the mark of his new teammate Checo Pérez, what he had achieved so far was enough to close the best lap in 1m31s394.
In this way, Verstappen left behind Bottas (2nd) and Hamilton (4th), between whom the surprising
Lando Norris
entered
.
The Englishman put the McLaren in first position averaging halfway through training and then fell to third place, just five tenths behind the best Red Bull.
Daniel Ricciardo, his new teammate in the Woking team, had a good lap despite the traffic that at times put him in the top positions but later only managed to be ninth.
Full FP1 results rundown 👀 # BahrainGP 🇧🇭 # F1 pic.twitter.com/9TaGKmWXnz
- Formula 1 (@ F1) March 26, 2021
Ferrari fared better, after a 2020 in which it filed its
worst performance in 40 years
with sixth place in the constructors' championship.
Charles Leclerc was fifth, ahead of Mexican Pérez's Red Bull, while Carlos Sainz made his Scuderia debut with the eighth fastest time.
Among them, the one who warned that Alpha Tauri will fight was Pierre Gasly.
There were two teams that, however,
were in debt
in the first session: Alpine (ex Renault) and Aston Martin (ex Racing Point).
The French concentrated on the aerodynamic evolutions and in the preparation of the classification - which will be in track conditions similar to the second training session - and fell in the table to 15th and 16th places, with Esteban Ocon ahead of Fernando Alonso, the first to hit the track on his return to F1 after three years.
We're back, and so is Fernando!
😃
The two-time world champ got us under way in FP1 🙌 # BahrainGP 🇧🇭 @alo_oficial pic.twitter.com/8mHM7PuSXj
- Formula 1 (@ F1) March 26, 2021
Lawrence Stroll's team, meanwhile, failed to break into the top ten, as it had done last year when it was ironically called the pink Mercedes in the paddock.
This time, Aston Martin's green car was behind the Alfa Romeos of Antonio Giovinazzi (10th) and Kimi Raikkonen (11th): Sebastian Vettel was 12th and Lance Stroll, 13th.
Behind them,
the best newcomer
appeared
, the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda
with Alpha Tauri.
As expected from Haas's performance, the other two rookies were last, with Mick Schumacher, the son of the seven-time champion, barely faster than Russian Nikita Mazepin.
While Williams put his partner -George Russell and Nicholas Latifi- in front and with the same number of laps (22) on the track.
It is expected that Alpine's debts, fundamentally, will be paid in the second practice, at 12
Look also
Formula 1: does the last season of the reign of Hamilton and Mercedes start?
Formula 1, everything you need to know about the 2021 season: drivers, teams, calendar and TV
