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Formula 1 Bahrain GP

F1 Bahrain GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP3 & Qualifying

Friday's action from the first round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20

Lewis Hamilton led a surprise Mercedes 1-2 at the end of practice on the opening day of track action, but many expect Red Bull to surge back to the front come qualifying.

FP3 begins at 12:30pm GMT (3:30pm local time) with qualifying at 4pm GMT (7pm local time).

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A reminder of the top 10 order coming into the final runs. Verstappen heads Perez, Norris, Leclerc, Alonso and Hamilton. Sainz, after topping Q1, is only seventh ahead of Piastri, Russell and Stroll.
Here comes the flood of cars slowly exiting the pits. Leclerc isn't happy with drivers stopping on the pitlane in front of Sainz.
Everybody is back into the pits having a new set of tyres fitted for the final Q2 runs. Hulkenberg, Tsunoda, Ricciardo, Albon and Magnussen are the five currently outside the top 10 cut-off.
Magnussen has lost his first timed lap for track limits at Turn 7, while Russell will be investigated after the session for not heeding the race director's instructions regarding the maximum delta time.
Perez now clambers into second, but even he is 0.558s down his Red Bull team-mate. Norris, the best non-Red Bull, is 0.567s behind.
Stopwatch
Leclerc now squeezes himself into the slender gap between Norris and Alonso to briefly claim second. But they are all blown out of the water by Verstappen's gambit of 1m29.374s. He's fastest, comfortably.
Alonso is Norris's closest rival so far but is unable to join the McLaren driver in ducking underneath the 1m30s barrier.
Both Haas drivers are actually slower than they managed in Q1, but Norris is straight into the 1m29s to take top spot.
All 15 drivers remaining in qualifying are now on track preparing for, or embarking on, their first runs of Q2. Just how much time will they find from the improving track conditions?
Aston Martin, McLaren, RB, Haas and Williams now send their drivers out.
It's not been a good day at the office for Alpine. One key question that will be asked back at base is how much this performance is track-specific. Ocon and Gasly will certainly hope that is the case...
 
Green flag
FP2 is green, but no takers at the start.
Stroll's late jump up to P2, just 0.056s down on Sainz, shows that track evolution will be a factor as always. More grip on the road surface = faster laptimes is a motorsport equation almost as old as time.
It's not hard to see where Zhou lost out in his intra-Sauber battle with Bottas. The Chinese driver had a big kick of oversteer exiting the final corner which he needed several attempts at controlling before fully committing to the throttle.
Quote
Ocon is fairly upbeat as he's informed that the gap to Magnussen in 15th was only a tenth. He tells the team: "Only round one, we keep going, we keep pushing. I've got faith in you guys".
Both Haas drivers avoid the drop, but the Sauber pair aren't so lucky. Bottas ends up missing the cut in 16th, ahead of Zhou, Sargeant, Ocon and Gasly, who bemoans a "diaster outlap".
Checkered flag
Both Ocon and Gasly improve, but it's not enough for them to avoid the drop as the checkered flag falls on Q1. P19 for Ocon and P20 for Gasly was not how the Frenchmen envisaged their season starting.
It's second for Stroll, he's avoided a Q1 exit. Now focus shifts to the Alpines...
Magnussen and Bottas both get themselves back ahead of Zhou, and now Ricciardo does too to get himself out of danger. Stroll goes fastest in sector one - what can he pull out of the bag?
Zhou was only missing a fraction and temporarily gives himself respite by vaulting up to 11th. What will others do?
Sainz is the only driver that has decided not to go out again. He's sitting pretty in P1 at the moment, so he's earned that call to save a set of softs (albeit having already done a timed lap on a medium set).
"I don't agree with this," grumbles Leclerc as he swoops past an Alpine that is dawdling towards the pit exit. It's clear that pitlane etiquette will again be a talking point.
Here they come then, with Zhou leading them round on the final prep laps of Q1. Can the Sauber driver evade the drop zone?
On the bubble currently is Ricciardo in 15th. Just above him in the pecking order are Sargeant (11th), Hamilton, Stroll and Tsunoda.
Everybody now heads back to the pits before preparing for their final timed laps. Crucially, the five facing Q1 elimination from P16 down are Zhou, Bottas, Magnussen, Ocon and Gasly.
Leclerc by comparison was sixth on his first timed lap with softs, which put him just behind Perez. So it's Sainz-Verstappen-Norris-Alonso the top four. Russell is seventh, then Hulkenberg, Albon and Piastri round out the top 10.
Stopwatch
But I wonder what Carlos Sainz has had for tea, because the Ferrari has just gatecrashed the top spot and elbowed Verstappen back into second place. It's the first sub-90s lap of the session too, as Sainz logs a 1m29.90s with fastest middle and final sectors.
Stopwatch
Norris now storms to the head of the pile on a 1m30.143s, with Alonso slotting into second. But Verstappen goes quicker than both on a 1m30.031s to occupy top spot.
Piastri's first effort is identical to Albon, which means he slots into third as he set his time after the Williams man.
Stopwatch
Albon is first of the soft runners to set a time and vaults to the top on a 1m30.692. But he's pipped to the post by Hulkenberg on a 1m30.623s.
The Ferraris and Alpines have now returned to the track on softs.
Gasly, Ocon and the Ferraris have now returned to the pits after their initial foray on the medium. But Gasly's first timed lap has been docked for running too wide at Turn 13 that it caught the stewards' attention. Not a good start to the session for the Alpine driver.
"They are all stopping. Can I go, or not? I don't want to stop," says Verstappen who is crawling down the pitlane as the crocodile of cars trickles out of the pit exit.
Alas here come some soft runners, Ricciardo and Albon leading out a veritable deluge of cars all keeping to the same schedule.
Stopwatch
Sainz's opening gambit is quicker than Leclerc's, putting the Spaniard top of the pile so far on a 1m31.208s. That time will surely not stand for long.
The quartet that were the keenest beans at the start of Q1 still have the track to themselves.
The Ferraris and Alpines get things started. According to our timing screens, all four are on the mediums.
Green flag
And we're go for qualifying in Bahrain.
We're completely under the floodlights now as we approach 7pm local time. Just about time to catch the first F2 race report of the year, as new Sauber junior Zane Maloney carried on where 2023 champion Theo Pourchaire left off as the Swiss team's representative by opening his account, before qualifying action begins.
Sun
Less than five minutes to wait now before qualifying begins, so time for a weather update. The air temperature is 18.1 °C, with track temperatures slightly higher at 22.0 °C.

By: Autosport Staff

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