Hamilton, Mercedes shine in practice
Lewis Hamilton led team-mate George Russell in a surprise Mercedes one-two at the top of the practice timesheets for Formula One’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, with world champion Max Verstappen only sixth.
Australia’s Oscar Piastri also enjoyed a good first day, finishing fifth in the second practice session in his Mclaren, after a third-place effort in the much less significant morning session which had been topped by his compatriot, RB’S Daniel Ricciardo.
The seven-times world champion Hamilton lapped the 5.4km floodlit Sakhir desert track in a best time of 1min 30.37secs, with Russell 0.206 seconds adrift and Aston Martin’s double world champion Fernando Alonso in third.
Reigning triple world champion Verstappen, who won in Bahrain last year and chalked up 19 victories in 22 races, was 0.477 off the pace.
“It's a shock to see us where we are but we’ll take it for now,’’ said Hamilton.
“But we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We need to keep our heads down and keep working on the setup ... I think our long run pace is nowhere near the Red Bulls, for example, so we’ve got some work to do there.’’
Verstappen, who has led the Formula One standings for a record 39 races going back to May 2022, had headed into the weekend as favourite to open his pursuit of a fourth consecutive title with victory. But he ended up sixth in both sessions. Carlos Sainz was fourth for Ferrari ahead of Piastri, with Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas in seventh ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
Charles Leclerc was ninth in the other Ferrari while Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10.
Ricciardo ended the day in 12th for rebranded Red Bull sister team RB after going fastest in the opening session, run in unrepresentative conditions.
Hamilton said he was much happier in the Mercedes than last year, with a more comfortable seat position.