RB’s Daniel Ricciardo clocked the quickest time during the opening Formula 1 practice session of the 2024 season in Bahrain.
The opening practice session took place in daytime conditions, with qualifying and the race both scheduled for twilight.
However the temperature in Bahrain has been cooler than most years, with ambient at around 19c, and track temperature peaking at 33c, with regular gusts blowing across the track.
But only a handful of times – RB, McLaren, and Sauber – opted to run the Soft tyre through the course of the one-hour session.
As a consequence Ricciardo moved to the front with a time of 1:32.869s, finishing 0.032s up on McLaren’s Lando Norris, as his team-mate Oscar Piastri slotted into third spot.
Yuki Tsunoda was fourth in the sister RB.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was the quickest of the Medium-shod runners in fifth position, three-tenths off Soft-clad Ricciardo, while World Champion Max Verstappen was sixth.
Verstappen complained off irregular downshifts from his RB20 during the session.
Mercedes’ George Russell and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were within a tenth of a second of fifth-placed Alonso in a session that had little in the way of drama or incident.
Their respective team-mates, Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz, were ninth and 11th, sandwiching Soft-shod Valtteri Bottas.
Sergio Perez was 12th, ahead of Williams’ Alex Albon, with Lance Stroll 14th for Aston Martin, ahead of Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant.
Alpine had a low-key start to proceedings, six-tenths of a second behind nearest rival Sargeant, with Esteban Ocon ahead of Pierre Gasly in 17th and 18th respectively.
Haas finished as comfortably the slowest team as it once again shirked one-lap performance.
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