Formula 1: Verstappen had a bad day and complained about the car on a day in which Ricciardo and Hamilton dominated

The symphony of the engines of each of the

Formula 1

teams can already be heard in the Sakhir desert, Bahrain, where the highest category of motorsport has its first official event on the calendar.

With a different schedule than usual, due to Ramadan, the drivers had their first training sessions this Thursday and the race will be on Saturday.

A day of surprises took place this Thursday in Bahrain, where in both the first and second training sessions the teams that were far from competing on equal terms with Red Bull in last week's preseason tests led.

In addition, the Austrian team was left out of the top 5 of the classification in both sessions of the day,

with Verstappen upset by the RB20's performance.

In the first free practice, the surprise came from the

Visa Cash App Red Bull F1 Team

(former Alpha Tauri) and its driver

Daniel Ricciardo

, who took first place after setting a time of

1:32:869.

Landau

Norris, meanwhile, came in second place aboard his McLaren and Oscar Piastri, his teammate, came third.

In fourth place was the Japanese

Yuki Tsunoda, who occupies the second seat of the brand new

Visa RB

.

Only the top four in the standings fitted fast (or soft) tyres, while the rest opted to swap between hard and medium tyres.

The Asturian Fernando Alonso was the one who achieved the best time and finished in fifth place.

Much more was expected from the performance of the current three-time champion,

Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

, and who is called to be his main competitor,

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

.

Both went unnoticed even though they had had good records in the previous tests.

The Dutchman barely managed to stop the clock at 1.33.238 and finished sixth;

Meanwhile, the Monegasque came eighth with 1,33,268.

Among them was the British

George Russell (Mercedes)

.

FP1 CLASSIFICATION@danielricciardo tops the first session of the new season 🤩#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/LxtHTNOkg0

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 29, 2024

Verstappen seemed quite upset and annoying with his new car

during the first training session since he did not find the best version of the RB20.

"Everything is fucking miles away

," he said over the radio as he spun around the circuit.

In turn, during the session he exchanged conversations with his team due to the poor performance of the car, which, according to the driver, had problems with the gearbox and poor stability on the track.

Max Verstappen sets the early pace but...

📻 “Everything is ****** miles off” says the Dutchman#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/LFeKnhot8Z

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 29, 2024

As dusk fell, under the artificial lights and stars of the desert, several of the teams began the second free practice with the classification training program,

when with the cars unloaded of fuel and soft tires, much faster times could be seen.

and close to those who - it is estimated - will be registered this Friday in the classification.

The second practice session took place at the same time as the

Qualy

and that is why several of the teams used the classification program to have a reference when setting the fastest lap.

Another of the big surprises of the day was Mercedes, which took the best times of the afternoon session.

Lewis Hamilton

achieved first place after clocking

1:30:374.

His teammate, Russell, was second and in third place was Fernando Alonso.

Both Verstappen and Leclerc again disappointed and failed to improve their times substantially when installing the fastest tire compound.

Mad Max

was in sixth place, +0.477 seconds behind Hamilton and Leclerc was ninth, +0.739 behind the British driver.

FP2 CLASSIFICATION @MercedesAMGF1 head into qualifying day with their noses in front 👏#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/iCTowhVAu2

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 29, 2024

This Friday they will take to the track again, first to complete the third training session of the weekend, which will get underway at 9:30 (Argentine time), when the teams are expected to use the full tank program to test the car performance for the race.

And the classification will take place at 1:00 p.m. (on Star + and F1 TV).

Several drivers had to fight with their cars during training sessions

Not everything was speed and joy in Bahrain to officially return to competition.

Some of the drivers had to battle during the training sessions to make it around the Sakhir circuit.

In the first practice session, the one who was seen fighting a lot with the car was

Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

, who in several sectors of the circuit was seen blocking the tires in order to find the ideal turning radius at the entrance to the curves. .

Carlos Sainz is cooking those tires 👨‍🍳#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/uurH9lVGO4

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 29, 2024

Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)

was another of those who had serious problems mastering his car.

The Canadian driver had to block on several occasions when he could not find a balanced car when braking and even continued to go around some curves on the circuit.

The outlook was different for Fernando Alonso who, unlike his teammate, found balance in the set-up and placed in the top 5 of the classification in both training sessions.

Lance Stroll with a "monster lock-up" 😶‍🌫️#F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/zVIVcxEBeg

— Formula 1 (@F1) February 29, 2024

The most notable of the mistakes was that of Leclerc, who had a scare in one of the last corners of the circuit, when - as he himself admitted -

he made a mistake that almost made him crash into the wall

, although he knew how to direct the car. to return it to the pits in one piece.