Sakhir, FP1: Gasly tops opening practice session for Bahrain GP

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly went quickest in the first practice session for this weekend’s season-opening FIA Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix. The French driver was some four tenths of a second faster than the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and third-placed Carlos Sainz.

Gasly set his best time of the one-hour session using the soft C3 compound tyre on offer from Pirelli for this first event of 2022. The AlphaTauri went out in the last quarter of an hour and posted a lap of 1:34.193. That left him 0.364 ahead of Leclerc 0.481 ahead of Sainz.

At the start of the session Leclerc was the first to take to the track, with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas following behind. The Finn was soon back in the pits, however, after reporting a misfire.

There was trouble too for Esteban Ocon. Just seven minutes into the session, the Alpine driver was travelling down the pit straight when his right sidepod suddenly disintegrated and the track was showered with debris. The session was red flagged to allow marshals to clear the pieces of the French driver’s car.

The session got going again after a 13-minute delate and soon after Fernando Alonso in the other Alpine moved to the top of the order with a C3 time of 1:35.247 effort. World champion Max Verstappen then used yellow-banded C2 medioum tyres to take top spot with a time of 1:34.783.

He worked his way down to 1:34.742 as team-mate Sergio Péres moved up to P2 on the same tyre, three tenths of a second behind.

George Russell then emerged on C3 softs tyres. The Mercedes drive battled bouncing on the straights that caused bodywork to break off his car but despite the damage he was able to go quickest with a lap of 1:34.629 15 minutes left on the clock.

Sainz them moved ahead before being outstripped by Leclerc and ultimately by Galsy.

Russell held on to fourth place ahead of Verstappen who stayed on mediums in the final stages of the session.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll finished as the sixth fastest man ahead of Lewis Hamilton in seventh, while Alonso and the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda were eighth and ninth respectively ahead of Pérez.