Fernando Alonso claims Friday at Bahrain Grand Prix
Fernando Alonso was fastest on day one of the Bahrain Grand Prix as Aston Martin threatened to upset the Formula 1 pecking order.
Fernando Alonso was fastest for Aston Martin on day one of the Bahrain Grand Prix. (XPB Images)
Alonso was fastest after the two free practice sessions on Friday, setting a time of 1:30.907 around the Sakhir circuit.
“It felt good,” said the Spaniard.
“It’s good to see the times, that you are being competitive.”
“After testing there are always some mixed feelings as to where you are, and still, until we go into quali, the race, and maybe the first three races, they are at very different circuits, Bahrain, Jeddah and Australia.”
“At the moment we are just concentrating on ourselves, and still a lot of things to improve in the car.”
Max Verstappen was second fastest, a tenth of a second behind the Aston Martin driver, with Sergio Perez completing the Red Bull pairing in third fastest.
The impact of Formula 1’s new cost-cap and development rules was apparent on the first day of the new season, with Aston consistently faster than the dominant Red Bull, Merecedes, and Ferrari teams.
The field was extremely compressed on Friday, with the top 13 drivers in FP2 separated by less than one second.
The second session was considerably faster than the morning running, with teams and drivers focusing on qualifying simulations as dusk fell in the desert.
The fastest laps on Friday in Bahrain - click to expand. (Pirelli)
Red Bull maintained their position at the front behind Alonso, with Charles Leclerc fourth-fastest for Ferrari before Nico Hulkenberg for Haas.
Aussie Oscar Piastri was P12 in the morning before finishing the day in P15.
The F1 field returns for the final practice session tomorrow before Qualifying at 2am (AEDT), with the Bahrain Grand Prix at 2am on Monday.
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Fernando Alonso on Friday at the Bahrain Grand Prix (Aston Martin Racing)
